Resident doctors to FG: Era of paying lip service to brain drain should be over 

The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has asked President Bola Tinubu-led administration to declare a state of emergency in the health sector. 

After a seven-day conference, through a communique issued on Saturday and signed by Emeka Orji, NARD president, resident doctors asked the federal government to urgently address the brain drain plaguing the health sector.

In recent times, the relocation of several healthcare professionals from Nigeria to other countries has raised concerns — a development that has retrograded the state of the country’s health sector.

In August 2022, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) said a total collapse of the health sector is imminent if urgent steps are not taken to address the brain drain in the sector.

NARD said the new administration should “as a matter of urgency, declare a state of emergency in the Nigerian health sector as the era of paying lip service to the monster called brain drain should be over”.

The association also asked the federal government to provide palliative to cushion the effect of petrol subsidy removal.

The doctors said the funds from the subsidy “should be put into meaningful investments” to better the lives of all Nigerians.

They also asked the government to set up a “high-powered panel to review and harmonise the reports from the former President Obasanjo’s Health Agenda for Nigeria Committee and the former Vice-President Osinbajo-led Health Sector Reform Committee”.

“This is in order to generate a plan of action in the health sector for the President Tinubu-led administration,” the communique reads.

NARD also demanded at least a 200 percent increment in the consolidated medical salary structure (CONMESS) and the associated allowances as contained for its members.

“We have resolved to give the new government some time to quickly resolve this issue which is at the root of the current spate of massive brain drain in the sector,” NARD said.

“We call on Governors Adedapo Abiodun of Ogun state, Alex Otti of Abia state, Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers state, Seyi Makinde of Oyo state, Abdurahman Abdulrasaq of Kwara state and the FCTA Administration to urgently look into the situation in the health sector in their states.”

NARD also asked the management of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) and the Lagos state governor to “discontinue the demand for bench fees as this contravenes the decision of the National Council on Establishment to abolish the fees”.