Lagos State Government said it needed at least 33,000 medical doctors to meet the shortfall created by the huge flight of medical personnel abroad.
To try to stem the tide the government had put necessary measures in place to address the shortfall. But it said over 16,000 doctors had left the country for greener pastures abroad. The Commissioner for Health Services, Prof. Akin Abayomi, disclosed this during a press briefing to commemorate the second year of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s second term in office at Alausa, Ikeja.
Abayomi said according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) standard, the doctor to patient ratio worldwide was 1:200.
He, however, stated that with over 20 million population, Lagos currently had 7,000 doctors, saying, “We have a shortage of 33,000 doctors.”
He added that Nigeria as a whole had a shortage of 300,000 doctors, saying not less than 16,000 doctors have left the country in recent years.
Despite these challenges, the commissioner stated that as a sub-national, Lagos was putting healthcare initiatives in place to tackle the gap.
With over 18,000 staff across primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities, Abayomi stated, “We are poised to tackle the challenges of healthcare in the state.”
He said, “We are planning strategically to address brain drain and increase brain gain. We have improved flow of funds into health sector.”
Abayomi added, “We have turned the corner; we have been able to see reduction. We have seen diasporans coming to Lagos either permanently or coming and going. A lot of them are keying into our healthcare initiative. They have seen Lagos as the next frontier in meeting our target.”
The commissioner stated that going by the statistics given by the federal government, not less than 16,000 doctors left the shores of Nigeria in search of greener pastures.
He stressed that the state government was building climate resilient facilities, by taking into consideration the state’s unique topography. “Many parts of Lagos are densely populated so the facilities are heavily built with concrete and others are built on sandfill. So, when we build, we take all this into consideration.”
The commissioner also hinted that the largest cancer centre in West Africa was located in Alausa, saying it is a comprehensive and special health facility to take care of the cancer patients.
In addition, the state government, according to the commissioner, will in the next 12 months inaugurate three massive secondary hospitals at Ojo, Lagos Island and Ketu-Ejirin.
Speaking on malaria disease, he advised Lagosians to always go for a test whenever they had symptoms of fever, saying it is not every fever that is diagnosed as malaria.
He said, “In the next one or two years, we can say in Lagos that we have eliminated malaria. 99 cases of fever are not malaria, so people should carry out tests and get doctor’s prescription before buying drugs.”
Segun James
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