Over 500 workers left National Hospital in two years – CMD

According to the Chief Medical Director (CMD), of the National Hospital, Abuja (NHA), Professor Mahmud Raji, no fewer than 500 personnel of the hospital have resigned in the last two years.

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He disclosed that most of them went abroad in search of better employment opportunities.

“The way they leave is a very hurtful thing for all hospital administrators. The most pitiful and worrisome aspect of it is the amount of money the Nigerian government has invested in each of these individuals either a doctor, a nurse, a pharmacist, a physiotherapist or whoever it is that leaves.”

Raji lamented that the brain drain syndrome has become a worrisome issue, stressing that almost every day, he treats two or three files of young people wishing to leave.

“Sometimes, not only young people; some people have actually gone through the ranks with lots of experience that they could teach other people. So, Nigeria is losing so much, painfully. Here, we have lost a number of quite senior doctors, especially the middle cadre doctors and the very young ones.

“Nurses have also left from the middle cadre and the younger ones. Some of our medical engineers are hotcakes outside and have left. I must tell you, Nigeria trains people so much; Nigerian graduates and staff are well sought after all over,” Raji added.

The CMD also said that the necessary equipment needed to work was not there and when this equipment is either non-existent or obsolete, healthcare practitioners feel that more should have been done.

“From what we can all see, the current administration has actually rekindled that hope in us that in the next couple of months or a couple of years, we will be able to see a change or a shift in this mindset among Nigerian health professionals eager to leave the country. Hopefully, we should even be able to attract them to come back while we retain the ones that are here,” Raji stated.

He said that NHA had employed various strategies to try to retain the healthcare personnel working in its employ.

“I may not be able to change their remuneration since this is within the purview of government, we try to pacify them because remuneration is usually the first thing people complain about.

“Secondly, in terms of welfare, at least we have tried as much as possible to relieve some of them. We have established cooperatives to assist staff, either financially or in whichever way they can be supported to get mortgages for their homes and other things,” Raji added.