By Toyeeb Omotayo
The House of Representatives has passed for second reading, a Medical and Dental Practitioners Act (Amendment) Bill, 2022, which seeks to make it compulsory for graduates in medical and dental fields to render services within Nigeria for five years before being granted a full license.
Sponsor of the motion, Ganiyu Johnson (APC/Lagos) said the move was to check the mass exodus of medical professionals from the country.
The legislation is titled. ‘A Bill for an Act to Amend the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act, Cap. M379, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 to Mandate Any Nigeria Trained Medical or Dental Practitioner to Practice in Nigeria for a Minimum of Five Years Before being Granted a Full License by the Council in Order to Make Quality Health Services Available to Nigeria; and for Related Matters.’
Nigeria has in recent times, especially after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, witnessed the mass migration of its professionals to developed countries, a development that is now known in local parlance as ‘Japa Syndrome.’
Leading the debate on the bill, Johnson noted that the amendment was to mandate any Nigerian-trained medical or dental practitioner to practice in Nigeria for a minimum of five years before being granted a full license by the council.
According to him, this was to make quality health services available to Nigerians considering the growing trend of the Nigerian population and the current emigration rate of Nigeria-trained medical and dental practitioners abroad.
Johnson said, “Nigeria currently has only 24,000 licensed medical doctors available in the country, less than 10 percent of the number needed to meet the World Health Organisation recommendation.
“According to the President of the Nigerian Medical Association, Uche Rowland, Nigeria requires a mix of 23 doctors, nurses, and midwives per 10,000 population to deliver essential health services, according to the WHO. He however stated that a large number of Nigerian doctors emigrated to seek greener pastures in developed countries, noting that 5,600 of them have migrated to the United Kingdom in the last eight years.
“Now, only one doctor is available to treat 30,000 patients in some Southern states, while in the North, it is one doctor to 45,000 patients.”
