Nigeria Has Only 1,500 Registered Obstetrics, Gynaecologists – Expert

Nigeria Has Only 1,500 Registered Obstetrics, Gynaecologists – Expert
Abuja, By Kuni Tyessi
— Nov 29, 2015 8:12 am | Leave a comment
An expert has revealed that Nigeria has only 1,500 registered obstetrics and gynaecologists in a population of about 170 million people, which is one of the countries with a poor doctor to patient ratio.‎ It also lacks the initiative to manage the few.
This was disclosed at the weekend by Prof Brian Adinma, the President of the Society for Gynaecology and Obstetrics (SOGON) at the end of the 9th international congress and 49th Annual General Meeting of the society in Abuja.
Lamenting the attitude of the government towards doctors, he stated that even some of the few are not properly absorbed for pre-registration workmanship as many can be seen roaming the streets without employment and incentives to encourage them.
“Nigeria has a poor doctor to patient ratio but it’s also on record that Nigeria has not been able to manage the number of doctors that are available. It has been revealed that there are so many house officers that could not even be absorved for pre-registration housemanship. This is poor management of the workforce and the manpower needed that we have.”
“There are little things we can do as a nation to balance and to utilise optimally the ones that we already have on ground. You proliferate them, you are not able to deploy them properly, even when you know you don’t have enough. Our strength in Nigeria is 1,500 obstetricians and gynaecologist, at least registered.”
He compared Nigeria’s population to its doctor and patient ratio with that of other countries and advised that with proper distribution and realisation that people in rural areas also have rights to good health, several deficiencies will be solved.
“A Jordanian told me that the country has 5,500 obstetrics nd gynaecologists in a country of about 5 million people. Compare that with 1,500 people in a country with about 170 million people. The proportion is horrendous. But we have to start from somewhere. We cannot be said to effectively articulate our manpower needs when we have not created vacancy or created jobs for them.”
“There are many doctors that are going all over the place unemployed and yet we don’t have the medical capacity to service our people. We don’t even have enough in the urban centres not to talk of the rural areas. How do we begin to distribute properly? We can do that when we begin to put in incentives which will make people work in the rural areas. We can distribute properly when we begin to realise that most people in the rural areas also have a right to good medical services. Think about them and fend for them in that direction.‎”