Stake holder calls for 155,000 more doctors in Nigeria
A call has been made for the addition of 155, 000 doctors at the ratio of one doctor to 1000 people in Nigeria.
Prof. Usman Ahmed, Provost, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Federal University Dutse who made the call, said the aimed is for the country to be able to achieve the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and to make more people have access to healthcare, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) said.
According to World Health Organisation (WHO), Universal Health Coverage aims to ensure that all people have access to the needed services of sufficient quality without exposing persons (recipients) to financial hardship.
Ahmed, who is also a professor of health sciences, University of Manchester, UK told the News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday in Abuja that data from the Federal Ministry of Health shows that there were 45,000 doctors registered and practicing in Nigeria, which is a ratio of one doctor to 4008 people.
“Even if we take it as one doctor to 4000 people and we want to have UHC, meaning a minimum of one doctor to 1000 people, we will need to have at least 200,000 doctors in Nigeria today.
“It also means that we will need nearly a million nurses because for each doctor we need several other nurses, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, audiologist etc. and we don’t have them complete in Nigeria,’’ he said.
He said Nigeria should realise that WHO recommended one doctor to 600 people, adding that “if we use WHO’s recommendation, we may need more than 155,000 doctors today.’’
