Nigeria ‎Needs 235,000 Doctors, Expert Says

 Nigerian doctors

… As IHS moves to improve doctor/patient ratio

Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

‎For the attainment of global best practices and to ensure that every Nigerian can access medical care when the need arises, 235,000 doctors are needed to close the wide margin between the doctor/patient ratio, a continuous challenge that has posed as threat.

‎Also, World Health Organisation has recommended a doctor patient ratio to be in the neighbourhood of 1:600 but currently, Nigeria posts 1:4,000; a condition many have described as abysmal.

This was disclosed by Ernest Nwokolo, Director, Global Fund Malaria when a mobile telecommunications infrastructure ‎known as IHS blazed the trail in contributing to the health indices of Nigeria by rolling out community-based medical outreach initiatives in three communities per state including schools within Niger, Kogi, Nasarawa and the Federal Capital territory.

He said the programme which is referred to as Community Health Empowerment Foundation (CHEF), a mobile health programme, which was conducted through a grant for “Project Wellness on Wheels (WoW)” seeks to implement activities targeted at improving the health status and health indices of the country under the platform for immunisation, malaria diagnosis and treatment, HIV counselling and testing (including TB), child spacing/family planning.

“Apart from the abysmally low numbers of health professional contributing to the poor health indices, other barriers such as geographical, social, religious and economic prevent people from accessing healthcare even when they are available.‎”

“Nigeria’s health indices have remained very poor due to the continued low investments in the health sector aside from the poor human resource capacity and the other barriers.

“World Health organisation has recommended a doctor patient ration in the neighbourhood of 1:600 but currently Nigeria posts 1:4,000; a condition many have described as abysmal. With the current figures it is obvious that Nigeria needs over 235,000 doctors to be able to reach the WHO standards.”