2,000 Young Doctors Stranded Yearly as Housemanship Slots Fall Short, MDCN Tells Senate

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

No fewer than 2,000 newly qualified medical doctors in Nigeria are left without housemanship placement every year due to limited capacity in the country’s centralized system.

The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) told the Senate yesterday, raising fresh concerns over manpower wastage and the deepening brain drain in the health sector.

The Registrar of the Council, Dr. Fatimah Kyari, disclosed this during the 2026 budget defence session before the Senate Committee on Health in Abuja.

She explained that while Nigerian medical schools produce about 6,000 doctors annually, the Centralised Housemanship Scheme can currently absorb only 4,000.

According to her, the shortfall has created a yearly backlog of young doctors unable to proceed with mandatory housemanship training, a situation she said requires urgent policy intervention.

Kyari said, “A total of about 6,000 medical doctors are produced annually from the various medical schools, but the centralised housemanship system has capacity for only 4,000. This leaves about 2,000 doctors without placement every year.”

She urged lawmakers to support the expansion of the scheme through the inclusion of state-owned and privately run hospitals.

She argued that this would allow all newly qualified doctors to be placed at once and reduce delays that often push young professionals to seek opportunities abroad.

“As a way of accommodating the entire 6,000 doctors yearly, there is a need to include state and private hospitals in the centralized housemanship system,” she added.

Kyari warned that failure to resolve the placement gap would continue to fuel medical brain drain, as frustrated graduates look outside the country for training and career progression.

Beyond the manpower challenge, the MDCN registrar also drew attention to funding constraints facing the council, saying inadequate releases were hampering its regulatory responsibilities.

She disclosed that although N1.2 billion was appropriated for MDCN’s capital expenditure in the 2025 fiscal year, no funds were released.

Similarly, she added, only N37.5 million was released out of the N100 million approved for overhead costs.

On personnel expenditure, Kyari said N13.859 billion was released from the N16.8 billion earmarked for staff costs in 2025.

She noted that while this was an improvement, overall funding remained insufficient for effective regulation of medical and dental practice nationwide.

She added that the council, like other health sector regulators, was struggling to meet operational demands amid rising expectations and workforce pressures.

Responding, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Senator Ipalibo Banigo (Rivers West), acknowledged the concerns raised by the MDCN and assured the council of legislative support.

Banigo said the committee would engage relevant authorities to address the funding gaps and examine policy options for expanding housemanship opportunities, particularly through partnerships with state and private health institutions.

She stressed that resolving the housemanship bottleneck was critical to strengthening Nigeria’s healthcare system and retaining medical talent within the country.