- Lagos Needs 40,000 More Doctors, Nurses – Sanwo-Olu
- Lagos Health Sector Needs ₦100bn More Funding
- Over 1.5 Million Enrolled in Ilera Eko
Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has revealed that the state is facing a shortage of about 40,000 doctors and another 40,000 nurses, while the healthcare sector requires at least ₦100 billion above its current budget to adequately meet the needs of residents.
Eko Hot Blog reports that the governor also disclosed that more than 1.5 million Lagosians have enrolled in the state’s health insurance scheme, Ilera Eko, as part of efforts to build a sustainable healthcare system.
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Sanwo-Olu made the disclosure on Thursday at the opening of the second Eko Health Convention held at the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island.
He described the shortage of healthcare workers and inadequate funding as the biggest challenges confronting Lagos’ health sector, warning that donor support for disease control was steadily declining.
“Lagos needs about 40,000 doctors to serve this population properly. We have about 7,000. We need roughly 40,000 more nurses. Every doctor in Lagos today is, in effect, doing the work of 10,” he said.
The governor added that the state also faces a major funding gap.
“The second gap is money. There is a shortfall of at least ₦100 billion between what our health budget provides and what this system genuinely requires.
“Donor financing, which supported much of our disease control for two decades, is contracting sharply and will not return in its old form,” he said.
To address the workforce shortage, Sanwo-Olu said the government had intensified recruitment, improved welfare packages for health workers and planned to establish a University of Medicine and Health Sciences.
“We have recruited aggressively, and last month opened clinical recruitment across all 29 of our secondary facilities.
“We have built accommodation for health workers. We are improving conditions to slow the departures and, increasingly, to attract colleagues back,” he said.
On health insurance, the governor said Ilera Eko had continued to record significant growth following the domestication of the National Health Insurance Authority Act.
“Today, more than 1.5 million Lagosians are enrolled in Ilera Eko. As at the end of May this year, the figure stood at 1,502,994. More than half are women.
“And utilisation is rising, which tells us something important: that coverage is translating into actual care and not merely into cards in wallets,” he said.
Sanwo-Olu also disclosed that the Lagos State Health Management Agency’s Assistance in Distress Programme has saved 18 lives since its launch in March by providing emergency medical support regardless of patients’ ability to pay.
He added that the government was deploying technology through the Lagos Smart Health Information Platform, which will enable seamless access to patients’ medical records across public health facilities, strengthen disease surveillance and improve healthcare planning.
The governor said Lagos was also investing in artificial intelligence and digital innovation to enhance medical diagnosis, imaging and service delivery.
Reaffirming his administration’s commitment to healthcare reforms, Sanwo-Olu said the focus was on building sustainable institutions that would outlive his tenure.
“We have kept our promises. Now we are building the systems that will keep them long after us,” he said.
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