Lagos State Government on Wednesday lamented that brain drain in the medical line has seriously affected the discharge of medical practice in the state, but quickly assured that the state was taking drastic steps to reverse the situation.
This was just as he noted that Nigeria as a whole had a shortage of 300,000 doctors, saying that no fewer than 16,000 doctors had left the country in recent years.
The State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, made this known during a press briefing to commemorate the 2nd year of the second term in office of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu at Alausa, Ikeja.
The commissioner noted that the total number of medical doctors in the service of the state government currently stood at 7,000, against the targetted figure of 49,000, explaining that as things were the medical personnel available fell short of the recommended ratio of World Health Organisation 1:200 patients.
Abayomi, while assuring that the state government was making a move to stop brain drain and improve the practice of medical services, stated that parts of the move to address the situation were training a larger number of medical personnel and facilitating the return of medical professionals from the diaspora to the state.
The commissioner explained that the state government also planned to secure the latest medical equipment, provide a better welfare services for medical personnel, by providing accommodation for them.
Prof. Abayomi said as part of efforts to achieve the goal, an Executive Bill had been sent to the State Assembly to increase the number of intakes into the institutions, including the Lagos State University of Science and Technology and Lagos State University College of Medicine (LASUCOM).
The commissioner, while noting that the State Ministry of Health is the largest ministry in the state, with the staff strength now at 18,000 and 40 directors, maintained that the state government was augmenting the medical service by partnering with the private medical practice practitioners.
“Despite the challenges, Lagos is putting healthcare initiative in place to tackle the gap. We are poised to tackle the challenges of healthcare in the State.
“We are planning strategically to address brain drain and increase brain gain. We have improved flow of funds into health sector.
“We have turned the corner, we have been able to see reduction. We have seen diaspora coming to Lagos either permanently or coming and going. A lot of them are keying into our healthcare initiative. They have seen Lagos as the next frontier in meeting our target,” he stated.
On climate change, Abayomi said the state government was building climate-resilient facilities, by taking into consideration the unique topography of the state.
“Many parts of Lagos are densely populated so the facilities are heavily built with concrete and others are built on sand fill. So when we build, we take all these into consideration,” he said.
Speaking on the provision of more medical facilities to the people of the state, the commissioner hinted that the largest cancer centre in West Africa was located in Alausa, describing it as a comprehensive and special health facility that takes care of cancer patients.
He further hinted that three massive secondary hospitals at Ojo, Lagos Island and Ketu-Ejirin would be inaugurated in the state in the next 12 months.
Speaking on malaria disease, Prof. Abayomi advised Lagosians to always go for a test whenever they had symptoms of fever, declaring that it is not every fever that is diagnosed as malaria.
“In the next one or two years, we can say in Lagos that we have eliminated malaria. 99 cases of fever are not malaria, so people should carry out tests and get a doctor’s prescription before buying drugs,” the commissioner said.
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