By Adeyinka Adeniran
The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, (MDCN) the body saddled with the responsibility of regulating the practice of Medicine, dentistry and alternative medicine in Nigeria has said plan is underway to collaborate the Federal Government to increase the numbers of doctors and other healthcare workers trained in the country.
The move, it said will help tackle the current shortfall and shortages of doctors, medical practitioners and other healthcare workers in the health sector.
The Registrar, MDCN, Dr Tajudeen Sanusi made he disclosure while speaking with journalists shortly after inducting graduates of the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan (CoMUI) into the medical and dental professions.
The event which was attended by the Vice Chancellor, UI, Prof Kayode Adebowale, the Provost, CoMUI, Prof Olayinka Omigbodun, Chief Medical Director, University College Hospital (UCH), Prof Jesse Otegbayo among other top management staff of the College held at the Paul Hendrickse Lecture Theatre on Thursday.
At the event, no fewer than 55 professionals were inducted. Out of the figure, 31 candidates were inducted for the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) Graduating Class of 2023 Clinical Intake 2018 while 24 candidates were indicted for the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS).
Speaking, Dr Sanusi said the present government through the two ministers in health have been very passionate about tackling the menace and challenges in the sector especially as it relates to shortage of personnel with a charge on the Council to see how to double the capacity of medical students and doctors in training without lowering or compromising the standard.
He said “The present government through the two ministers in health have been very passionate about these things and that is why they said, we should try and see how we can double the capacity and when you look at it literally you will say, double capacity, is that not going to lower the standard?
“But, when you to listen to them, they said we have many Federal medical centres where you have many specialists, there are many specialists hospital with no specialist then why can’t medical students rotate through those facilities?
“When you look at the UK, medical students and doctors are never trained in one same location, they move from location to location because each of the locations had gotten its own strength. In that, we are working hand-in-hand with them, trying to see how we can increase carrying capacity but the caveat is that, we must not lower the standard.
“We are already identifying where problems are likely to arise but we are trying all our possible best to see how we can improve in those areas so that we increase the carrying capacities of the laboratories at Basic Medical Sciences and other disciplines. And again, recruitment of qualified personnel because presently most medical schools are saying they are short of personnel.
“We need to applaud the FG for rescinding a decision that in service before, you retire as a level 17 officer, if they want to engage you in contract, you come down to level 16 but they have removed that for the doctors, that they can get you back on the same level you retired and pay you the same salary on which you retire.
“Then, we are trying to explore that for the benefit of the country because there is no way you can actually dissociate medical education from healthcare delivery system because it is skill acquisition through the hospitals, through the availability of human resources that teaches this medical students.
“We are trying our best that is why we are collaborating with the present ministers so that we can actually increase the numbers of doctors and other healthcare workers we train. We have observed that, if you train ten before, out of the ten, four or five will try to go out and you are left with five. If you now train 20, possibly 7 or 8 will go out and then you have about 12 remaining, it will improve the healthcare delivery system in the country.”
The MDCN boss who said many young and newly trained medical professions who relocate to seek greener pastures outside the country going by the “japa syndrome” are doing so out of misconception.
He said although the Council cannot stop anyone from seeking greener pastures elsewhere, but, “our advise is that, when they go on there, let them avail themselves with postgraduate opportunities with the hope of returning back to Nigeria to come and offer support to the healthcare workforce and to show some kind of gratitude to the FG, that is the way we look at it.”
Congratulating the students and the Federal Government, for what he described as subsidizing the tuition fees of the inductees, the Registrar said with the induction, the FG has injected into the workforce a new set of doctors to support human resources for the health sector which has been grossly inadequate in all ramifications.
In their separate remarks, the Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan, Prof Kayode Adebowale and Provost College of Medicine, Professor Olayinka Omigbodun charged the inductees to uphold the name and integrity of the institution and those who have gone ahead of them doing well on the field.
The Provost lamented the challenges of power which had disrupted training and teachings of the students among others that the College is facing and seeking help to address.
