Eko Hot Blog reports that Dr. Tunji Alausa, the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, has announced that the Federal Government intends to send medical personnel abroad for specialized training. This initiative aims to curb medical tourism and promote research in the field.
Alausa mentioned that collaboration between the Federal Ministry of Health and the National Postgraduate Medical College in Ijanikin, Lagos State, is underway. The Health Minister made this announcement during the investiture ceremony of Dr. Peter Ebeigbe as the 23rd President of the National Postgraduate Medical College in Lagos on Friday.
Ebeigbe, a member of the Faculty of Obstetrics and Gynecology, assumed office on December 1, 2023, following his election during the 131st statutory meeting of the college’s governing board. He is set to serve a two-year term, succeeding Dr. Akinsanya Osibogun as the immediate past president.
Delivering a speech at the ceremony, Alausa said the ministry was developing new curricula to solve the challenges in the health sector.
He said, “I am to announce that the college, in collaboration with the ministry, is establishing training in many other sub-specialties to be able to treat Nigerians, reduce medical tourism, and enhance research.
“The new curriculum being developed includes interventional cardiology in the faculty of internal medicine and cardiac electrophysiology in the faculty of internal medicine. This is extremely important as a lot of people in our country now have pacemakers and automatic implantable cardioverter defibrillators; interventional radiology in the faculty of radiology; pain medicine in the faculty of anesthesia; critical care medicine in the faculty of anesthesia; hospice and palliative medicine in the faculty of family medicine; and robotic surgery in the faculty of surgery.
“The FMOH is putting mechanisms in place to fund this training abroad for selected candidates who will be bonded. Surgical oncology in the faculty of surgery; and transplant surgery in the faculty of surgery. This super specialty training in solid organ transplant will focus on kidney, liver, lung, and heart transplants for now.”
In his address, Ebeigbe expressed concern about the decreasing income of medical professors and consultants, highlighting the disparity with counterparts in the Middle East.
He emphasized that economic factors were driving medical professionals to migrate abroad and called for immediate economic intervention.
Ebeigbe said, “One of my teachers who travelled to the Middle East and came back after many years explained things to me, stating that a Nigerian medical professor’s annual earnings gradually dwindled until they were less than the equivalent of $700.
“It was an insightful ‘economic’ intervention by the Federal Government for the enactment of the Medical Salary Scale, which resulted in better pay for doctors, that put an end to the medical brain drain.
“The root cause of brain drain is economic, and economic intervention is currently needed to stem the worsening cascade and prevent a collapse of the health system. As a person who relates closely and daily with resident doctors and trainers, I must inform the honorable Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare about the severity of the situation.”
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