Poor pay threatens Nigeria’s medicine future, warns ex-Ogun health commissioner

EX-Ogun State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Babatunde Ipaye

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The Former Commissioner for Health in Ogun State, Dr Babatunde Ipaye, on Wednesday raised the alarm over what he described as the “unacceptable” poor remuneration for the medical doctors in the country, saying that this might begin to discourage the young generation from embracing the rigours of medical training.

Ipaye said that to achieve relative peace in the health sector such that the medical doctors won’t be embarking on frequent industrial action while the members of the public are left to suffer, government at all levels must prioritise increment in funding the health sector and ensure that the welfare of the medical doctors are not left in dire situation as it were with current poor remuneration.

The former commissioner equally urged the government to explore the abundant opportunities inherent in public-private partnerships to revolutionise the health sector and provide qualitative healthcare services for Nigerians.

Ipaye made this call on Wednesday while speaking with journalists after delivering his keynote address titled “Beyond Crossroads; Unlocking Health System Potential Through Partnership” at the National Executive Council meeting of the Nigerian Medical Association  held at the June 12 Cultural Centre, Kuto, Abeokuta

He explained that “The pay for doctors, I can say categorically in Nigeria, is not enough. Because sometimes when I listen to how much my colleagues are paid, I wonder who would want to even go into studying medicine in the first instance.

“Because there’s no justification for putting that kind of input, or for sacrificing so much of your social life, of your family life to take care of the health of others, and what you earn at the end is peanuts.”

Ipaye stated that to correct this anomaly, “The government should develop a payment mechanism that’s able to pay people by effort. So when people are paid by effort, there will be no crisis. So in a nutshell, this poor pay is threatening the future of our dear profession”.

Ipaye also emphasised the need to explore the public-private partnership to strengthen the country’s health sector.

He said that “As I said, we need to open up the financing mechanism for health. We have private donors, and capital donors can come in a very transparent manner to improve their system investment.

“The capital GDP for Nigeria is one of the lowest, you know, amongst countries within the rank of Nigeria as an economy, the 3.7% of GDP is too low to run the kind of system that will cover the care of 230 million people.

“So if we allow transparency within the health sector space, and we have physician-led governance and we have a system and processes that will allow outreach collaborations, cooperation, multi-specialty hospitals, facilities, rather than everybody working in silo.

“They will bring in a whole lot of resources into the space that can help us take services to scale and serve the people much better”.

The former commissioner also highlighted the need for the government to increase its budget allocation for the health sector and also deepen the health insurance coverage to 50% lamenting that only about 4% of the total country’s population is currently covered by the health insurance policy.

Also speaking at the conference, the National President of NMA, Prof Bala Audu, said that the theme of the conference was prompted by the fact that Nigerian doctors and indeed the Nigerian healthcare delivery system have a lot of potential, forcing some other countries to even come around and recruit medical doctors from the country.

The NMA equally urged the government at both the federal and subnational levels to treat doctors with more respect and appreciation for the job they do and to improve their welfare so they can do more for the country.

Audu said that Nigeria has a potential for revisiting the medical tourism as well as being an international hub for the training of healthcare professionals, hence the need to explore the public, private potential in order to move the nation forward in healthcare delivery.

Welcoming his colleagues, the Ogun State NMA Chairman, Dr Luqman Ogunjimi, said that the theme of this year’s NEC, Beyond Crossroad: Unlocking Health System Potential through Partnership, and the subtheme, ‘Caring for the Caregiver: Doctor’s Welfarism and Mental Resilience in a Broken System, are timely and relevant.

Ogunjimi said that the welfare of doctors and healthcare providers is a priority, and that all hands must be on deck and remain committed to supporting this cause to improve productivity in the health sector.

The NMA Chairman lauded Gov Dapo Abiodun for his investment in the health sector so far and urged him to do more to improve the healthcare delivery in the state.

Nigeria’s health sector is characterized by a mix of persistent challenges, including an acute shortage of health workers, primarily due to poor remuneration, which has led many medical personnel to migrate to the US and other European countries in search of greener pastures.

Despite ongoing government reform efforts, the sector continues to grapple with underfunding, a severe ‘brain drain’ of medical professionals, and inadequate infrastructure, which impact health outcomes.

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