February 05, (THEWILL) – The Chief Medical Director of National Hospital, Abuja (NHA), Prof. Mahmud Raji, on Sunday, said over 500 medical staff of the hospital left its services in search of greener pastures in the last two years.
Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja, Raji said most of them went abroad in search of better working conditions.
“The way they leave is a very hurtful thing for all hospital administrators. The most pitiful and worrisome aspect of it is the amount of money the Nigerian government has invested into each of these individuals either a doctor, a nurse, a pharmacist, a physiotherapist or whoever it is that leaves.
“Sometimes, not only young people; some people have actually gone through the ranks with lots of experience that they could teach other people. So, Nigeria is losing so much, painfully. Here, we have lost a number of quite senior doctors, especially the middle cadre doctors, and the very young ones.
“Nurses have also left from the middle cadre and the younger ones. Some of our medical engineers are hotcakes outside and have left. I must tell you, Nigeria trains people so much, Nigerian graduates and staff are well sought after, all over.
“For instance, if a doctor or a nurse comes here, he or she needs to see an environment that is quite serene, quite beautiful, even to rest in a very comfortable area during their one-hour break.
“At least you are able to have something to eat, replenish your energy before you go back to the next phase of work, but usually, in our hospitals in Nigeria, we don’t have such.
“In terms of the remuneration, it may not be as good as what you would expect elsewhere. Even though I must say the purchasing power in Nigeria is far better than the purchasing power elsewhere and our money is still able to buy something.
“We should also look at the unsolved problem of interprofessional rivalry that also eats into people’s psyche. People should be comfortable with the next person they’re working with, be it a nurse, a physiotherapist or whoever,” he said.
Raji also said that the necessary equipment needed to work was not there and when these equipment are either non-existent or obsolete, the healthcare practitioners feel that more should have been done.
“From what we can all see, the current administration has actually rekindled that hope in us that in the next couple of months, we will be able to see a change or a shift in this mindset among Nigerian health professionals eager to leave the country.
“Hopefully, we should even be able to attract them to come back while we retain the ones that are here.
“I may not be able to change their remuneration since this is within the purview of the government, we try to pacify them because remuneration is usually the first thing people complain about.
“Secondly, in terms of welfare, at least we have tried as much as possible to relieve some of them.
“We have established cooperatives to assist staff, either financially or in whichever way they can be supported to get mortgages for their homes and other things.
“On our own, we sometimes get these mortgage organisations to come and assist our staff. We have been able to get some buses to relieve the stress that the staff get in conveying themselves from work back home and from home to work.
“We are trying to also make the environment where they work a bit more serene and accommodating for them. This would require a lot of funding, but at least with the little that we are able to get, we are able to do it bit by bit,” he added.
In terms of training, the CMD said since training out of the country may be expensive, the hospital arranges local training and, when it is able to, it supports them to go for training within the country and sometimes out of the country as the funds allow.
“Through budgetary and intervention pathways, we are also trying to get in some more new equipment that will make them happy while doing their jobs. When you go to our laboratories now, you will see that they are not as they used to be.
“We have so many automated machines; with these machines, all you need to do is just to put in samples and then the thing runs by itself, unlike earlier on where a person will have to run this, after this, you do that. So, now, they have it a bit easier.
“They also feel like, yes, we are working where we would wish to have flown to work. So, we are upgrading our laboratories or rather, to a very large extent, we are comfortable calling them automated laboratories.
“That’s what we are trying to do, at least in our own little ways, to make life better and the good thing is, some of them do appreciate it. However much you try, some people are already fixated on leaving,” he said.
On the issue of inter-professional rivalry in the healthcare profession, he said even though it exists in other institutions, at NHA, there has been some sort of a very harmonious relationship.
He added that hardly were there local strikes at NHA in the last couple of years because of that harmonious relationship.
“But the staff are not in isolation as they also mingle with other people outside. So, once in a while, you would hear such complaints, but then some of these issues are actually realistic that you find in other centres and it can really be quite bad. It sometimes affects the function of some of such organisations but we are lucky here that we are able to, at least, control it,” he said.
He recalled that a couple of years ago, a certain committee was set up by the Federal Government to look into it and the committee made some recommendations.
“I am not sure those recommendations have been fully implemented, but things might probably have changed now such that it’s time to probably have a new committee set up to look into this.
“I assure you that with the current administration and the mandate given by the President to resolve the issues in healthcare and the ministers we have running the ministry, people have the confidence that they have the roadmap to solving this problem.
“We have to look at it holistically such that you don’t just see doctors as a group, solve their problems, but while solving their problems, you will have the problem of nurses.
“So also, when you call the nurses and solve their problems, you cause a problem for the radiologist or the pharmacist and things like that.
“From the feelers we’re having from our interactions with those of our leaders in the ministry now, they’re likely going to look at it in that holistic manner, where it should be a win-win for all facets of healthcare,” he said.
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