The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has disclosed that its membership now stands at 11,899, representing about 40% of doctors in the country. The association emphasized that improving incentives and working conditions is the key to retaining medical professionals and addressing the growing human resource gap in Nigeria’s healthcare sector.
In an exclusive interview with Sunday PUNCH, NARD President, Dr. Tope Osundara, argued that merely increasing the retirement age of healthcare workers from 60 to 65 years would not be enough to tackle the issue of mass doctor migration.
Osundara lamented the increasing number of Nigerian doctors seeking opportunities abroad.
“Raising the retirement age is not the ultimate solution to filling the gap in human resources within the health sector. There are doctors who leave the country immediately after finishing medical school without even waiting for a job,” he said.
According to him, the trend has worsened in recent years, with many young doctors writing international medical exams to secure employment in countries like the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
“In the past, Nigeria attracted medical professionals from countries like India. Now, the reverse is happening—our own doctors are leaving in large numbers. If we make the conditions here more appealing, we could even attract doctors from other countries to practice in Nigeria,” he added.
Osundara acknowledged that Nigeria might not be able to match the working conditions of developed nations but suggested that achieving 70–80% of those standards would be enough to encourage doctors to stay.
“Even if we can’t reach 100% of the standards in developed nations, a reasonable improvement would make doctors feel more comfortable, knowing that Nigeria is doing its best within its available resources,” he stated.
He also noted that poor working conditions were not limited to the medical field but affected multiple industries across the country.
The NARD President questioned the implementation of the national policy on health workforce migration, which was approved by President Bola Tinubu in August 2024. He argued that while Health Minister Prof. Muhammad Pate had taken steps to address the crisis, policy execution remained a major challenge.
“The Coordinating Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Pate, has done his part, but implementation remains an issue. It’s one thing to propose a policy, but it’s another to see it through,” Osundara said.
He also criticized the government for failing to align doctors’ salaries with the new minimum wage, stating, “How can we raise the bar when the foundational issues remain unresolved?”
As Nigeria continues to struggle with a growing brain drain in the medical sector, experts warn that without immediate intervention, the country’s healthcare system could face an even greater crisis in the coming years.
