Experts at the maiden edition of the medical education summit are seeking solutions towards improving the number and competence of the medical education and practice workforce.
They believe this will help to retain the workforce in the health system and stop the recent overwhelming brain drain through advancing medical competency in graduating medical doctors and increasing the numbers.
The world health organisation recommends that the doctor patient ratio should be at one doctor to six hundred patients.
In Nigeria, this has fallen short of this recommendation with one doctor available to treat about thirty thousand patients in some southern states and about forty five thousand patients to one doctor in the North.
The decline has continued in recent times due to brain drain with many skilled physicians leaving the shores of the country further depleting the workforce.
The maiden edition of the medical education summit is seeking ways to stop brain drain
Speakers want all hands on deck to stop the exodus of the health work force through improving the number and competence of the medical education and practice workforce, retaining them in the system and attracting the already migrated workforce.
Improving health outcomes through addressing worsening doctor patient ratios will go a long way in boosting service delivery and manpower development to provide critical and essential medical services for the nation.
The theme of the summit organized by the medical and dental consultants association of Nigeria is advancing medical competency in graduating medical doctors and increasing the numbers.
