Ondo worst hit by brain drain of doctors, health workers in South West ― NMA chair

The Chairman of the Ondo State Chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr Stella Adegbehingbe, on Tuesday, decried the exodus of medical personnel in the state, saying the state is the most affected in the SouthWest by the brain drain of medical professionals.

Adegbehingbe who stated this in Akure, the state capital, during a press conference to herald the Annual General Meeting of the association, said medical officials have been leaving the services of the health institutions due to unfavourable working conditions.

Lamenting the development, the NMA chairman, also attributed the exodus of doctors to irregular salary payments, saying this had been one of the major factors contributing to the dearth of medical personnel in the state.

She said “the issue of brain drain is something that is very massive and it is not only in Ondo State. Though, Ondo State is the worst in the Southwest region and the National and the state body we have been on it in engaging the government.

“We could recall that at the beginning of my assumption in office there were several strikes because of the issue of salary and that was our appeal at the beginning that government should at least look for a way in addressing the health sector issues because once they start leaving it would be difficult to get them back.

“So, we have been engaging them, we wrote several letters and that has led to the exodus of doctors and they are still leaving and not only doctors alone, health workers generally.

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“I have said it several times that the only solution is the regular payment of salary. Colleagues are complaining bitterly, every morning I do receive calls on this and after they have made the complaints they will say chairman I can’t wait again, I’m leaving and that is the main course.

“We even said that we want to employ, but people were not coming because we are the only state in the Southwest region that is not been paid so they will rather prefer to go to other states like Osun, Oyo, Ekiti, Ogun among others and expect that is being addressed, it would be difficult for Ondo Government to get health personnel employed.

“We need people to use our facilities, the personnel to work is our major challenges now, once the personnel in all cadre is addressed, we will be able to work around.

“The battle of our members’ welfare in the areas of salary have not been met, and it is affecting everybody and we are praying that economy will be okay so that government will be able to pay our salary regularly.”

Speaking on a high number of death being recorded in teaching hospitals, Dr Adegbehingbe said, “we have issues with personnel, another is that before patients will be presented in the hospital, some would have used many things like wrong drugs.

“So when they come it is already a bad case. So we are appealing to people that once they have any health challenges, they should come to the hospital on time instead of trying to treat themselves.

“Health insurance can help, and the government is doing some things towards that, NMA has been on that for so many years,” the chairman said.

On her achievements as NMA chairman in the state, she said “we have been able to assist a lot of our members on the issues of welfare, and now have a functioning website where we have been able to document our history.

Adegbehingbe added: “This executive has been able to produce a national leader and we have been able to settle the land issue we have with the government. We also visit our elderly health personnel regularly, we give them gifts. We are also reviewing our constitution and hope to ratify it before our AGM.

“I thank the doctors and stakeholders in the state for believing in our executive and for granting us the privilege to be able to lead them because we have learnt a lot and we are still learning.”