About 4,765 Nigerian doctors working in UK, says Anyaoku

•’Govts must uplift health sector’

MEDICAL doctors are abandoning Nigeria for greener pastures
overseas owing to inadequate management of hospitals by the three
tiers of government, former Commonwealth Secretary General Chief
Emeka Anyaoku said yesterday.

He said over 4,765 Nigerian doctors were working in the United
Kingdom (UK), which, according to him, constitute 1.7 per cent of
the European country’s medical workforce.

Anyaoku spoke yesterday during the celebration of the 110th
anniversary of the Iyi-Enu Mission Hospital and the launching of an
ultramodern Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) at Ogidi, Idemili
North Local Government Area, Anambra State.

He said Iyi-Enu Mission hospital had been no exception from the
general decline of institutions throughout the country.

According him, “People of my age (85) feel nostalgic for the old
days in the early years of our country’s independence.

“During that period, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, the
Commonwealth ranked Nigeria fourth in the hierarchy of health
sector efficiency countries.

“In fact, at that time, ours was a country that itself was
attracting medical tourism on account of the quality of the
services offered by the University Teaching Hospital Ibadan
(UCH).

“But today, it is lamentable that the Federal Government’s
endorsement of the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendation
that 13 per cent of the national budget should be allocated to the
health sector, as well as the African Union’s Abuja declaration in
2001 that 15 per cent of the national budget should be allocated to
the health sector, only a paltry sum of between about 3.4 per cent
and 5.6 per cent are allocated.”

The elder statesman said the result of the low budgetary
allocation to the health sector over the years and “the Nigerian
factor” had assailed the country with ill-equipped hospitals with
low grade facilities.

“Indeed, most of our hospitals have been reduced to mere
consulting clinics.

“Recently, we had a big shock to the national psyche, when it
was revealed that even the Aso Rock Clinic that attends to the
nation’s highest political leaders and their families was
completely lacking in basic facilities like drugs and even
syringes.

“It is, therefore, no surprise that when he visited Nigeria
recently, Bill Gates, the Chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation, in criticising Nigeria for spending relatively far too
little on the development of its human capital, pointed to the
nation’s health sector alongside the education sector as some of
the most neglected,” the elder statesman said.

Anyaoku said Bill Gates’ reference to the Nigerian health sector
was not comforting.

“Yet, Nigeria’s dismal record and bad reputation in the health
sector cannot come to anybody as a surprise, not when highly
qualified Nigerian doctors are voting with their feet, fleeing and
abandoning the country in droves to work abroad,” he said.

He, therefore, hailed the authorities of Iyi-Enu Hospital under
the leadership of the Bishop on the Niger, Rt. Rev. Owen Nwokolo,
for accepting the challenge of restoring the health facility to its
past glory.

“But in this highly desirable restoration, I enjoin the
management to take seriously, the importance of specific training
of technicians for the maintenance of the sophisticated diagnostic,
dialysis and the MRI equipment that are installed, “Anyaoku
said.

The event was attended by Deputy Senate President Ike
Ekweremadu, the traditional ruler of Ogidi, Igwe Alex Onyido and
others.

•’Govts must uplift health sector’

MEDICAL doctors are abandoning Nigeria for greener pastures
overseas owing to inadequate management of hospitals by the three
tiers of government, former Commonwealth Secretary General Chief
Emeka Anyaoku said yesterday.

He said over 4,765 Nigerian doctors were working in the United
Kingdom (UK), which, according to him, constitute 1.7 per cent of
the European country’s medical workforce.

Anyaoku spoke yesterday during the celebration of the 110th
anniversary of the Iyi-Enu Mission Hospital and the launching of an
ultramodern Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) at Ogidi, Idemili
North Local Government Area, Anambra State.

He said Iyi-Enu Mission hospital had been no exception from the
general decline of institutions throughout the country.

According him, “People of my age (85) feel nostalgic for the old
days in the early years of our country’s independence.

“During that period, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, the
Commonwealth ranked Nigeria fourth in the hierarchy of health
sector efficiency countries.

“In fact, at that time, ours was a country that itself was
attracting medical tourism on account of the quality of the
services offered by the University Teaching Hospital Ibadan
(UCH).

“But today, it is lamentable that the Federal Government’s
endorsement of the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendation
that 13 per cent of the national budget should be allocated to the
health sector, as well as the African Union’s Abuja declaration in
2001 that 15 per cent of the national budget should be allocated to
the health sector, only a paltry sum of between about 3.4 per cent
and 5.6 per cent are allocated.”

The elder statesman said the result of the low budgetary
allocation to the health sector over the years and “the Nigerian
factor” had assailed the country with ill-equipped hospitals with
low grade facilities.

“Indeed, most of our hospitals have been reduced to mere
consulting clinics.

“Recently, we had a big shock to the national psyche, when it
was revealed that even the Aso Rock Clinic that attends to the
nation’s highest political leaders and their families was
completely lacking in basic facilities like drugs and even
syringes.

“It is, therefore, no surprise that when he visited Nigeria
recently, Bill Gates, the Chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation, in criticising Nigeria for spending relatively far too
little on the development of its human capital, pointed to the
nation’s health sector alongside the education sector as some of
the most neglected,” the elder statesman said.

Anyaoku said Bill Gates’ reference to the Nigerian health sector
was not comforting.

“Yet, Nigeria’s dismal record and bad reputation in the health
sector cannot come to anybody as a surprise, not when highly
qualified Nigerian doctors are voting with their feet, fleeing and
abandoning the country in droves to work abroad,” he said.

He, therefore, hailed the authorities of Iyi-Enu Hospital under
the leadership of the Bishop on the Niger, Rt. Rev. Owen Nwokolo,
for accepting the challenge of restoring the health facility to its
past glory.

“But in this highly desirable restoration, I enjoin the
management to take seriously, the importance of specific training
of technicians for the maintenance of the sophisticated diagnostic,
dialysis and the MRI equipment that are installed, “Anyaoku
said.

The event was attended by Deputy Senate President Ike
Ekweremadu, the traditional ruler of Ogidi, Igwe Alex Onyido and
others.