Nigerian Health experts have called for improved deployment and retention strategies to ensure that health workers are available where they are most needed, particularly in rural and underserved communities.
The experts made the call during a webinar organised by the Doctors Medical Aid Foundation (DMAF), titled “Nigeria’s Health Workforce at a Crossroads: Rethinking How We Deliver Care.”
The discussion focused on the unequal distribution of health workers across Nigeria, with participants identifying rural postings, inadequate infrastructure, poor remuneration and internal migration as major barriers to equitable healthcare delivery.
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A health system strengthening specialist with the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Ruth Adetokunbo, said Nigeria was losing value not only through the migration of doctors and nurses abroad, but also through the ineffective utilisation of health workers within the country.
She said health workforce planning must address four critical areas: production, absorption, deployment and retention.
“We need to make sure that we are producing the right number of health workers, that the system can absorb them, that they are deployed where they are needed, and that we can retain them,” she said.
Also speaking, Dr Gilbert Wadia of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) said rural recruitment and retention remained major challenges, with political influence and internal migration affecting workforce distribution.
Wadia advocated rural allowances, flexible rosters and non-financial incentives to make rural postings more attractive to health workers.
He said a functional primary healthcare facility should have the right personnel with appropriate skills available at all times, supported by adequate salaries and accommodation.
Wadia also highlighted the revitalisation of 3,504 primary healthcare centres and the introduction of two-way referral arrangements linking primary healthcare centres with secondary and tertiary facilities.
He said such referral systems, supported by formal agreements and advance notification, could improve continuity of care and reduce gaps between different levels of the health system.
The Director and Head of Reproductive Health Division at the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Dr Samuel Oyenie, said government was strengthening workforce planning through a Human Resources for Health Strategic Working Group, capacity-building programmes and the use of workforce registries to identify distribution gaps.
He disclosed that government had also embarked on the recruitment of 4,000 nurses and midwives, while urging states to take greater responsibility for the infrastructure and functioning of general hospitals.
The experts agreed that improving Nigeria’s health workforce would require coordinated action across federal and state governments, the private sector, professional bodies and other stakeholders.
They also stressed the importance of reliable data, adequate financing, accountability and performance measurement in ensuring that health workers are effectively deployed and retained where they are needed most.
