The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Ekiti State branch has expressed worries over the mass exodus of doctors in search of greener pastures outside the state.
The branch chairman, Dr Babatunde Rosiji, raised the concern when he paid a courtesy visit to the secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists on Wednesday in Ado-Ekiti.
Rosiji said that the rate at which doctors were leaving the country “is alarming and it is becoming a source of concern to stakeholders in the health sector, particularly the leadership of the NMA.
“Doctors in Ekiti are leaving Nigeria. As of today, we have just 85 consultants; we are supposed to have 800 doctors in Ekiti, but as of today, we have just 500.
“In some hospitals in Ekiti, we have one medical doctor and in the best-case scenario, we have two doctors instead of nine.
“Things are going wrong in the health sector in Ekiti. I hope we won’t get to the point where we will see native doctors in our hospitals,” the chairman said.
Rosiji stressed the need to take steps toward stemming the situation, which has led to a dearth of capable doctors to attend to patients.
He also called on the state government to look into the welfare of health workers in the state for effective service delivery.
