Over 39 doctors and 800 medical staff have left the Niger health sector to seek greener pastures abroad in the past year, the Niger Hospital Management Board has stated.
According to the Executive Medical Director of the Niger State Hospital Management Board, Dr Ibrahim Abdullahi, the doctor to patients ratio in the state is one to 8,000 adding that the State is facing a serious health personnel crisis
“In Niger State, the doctor to patients ratio is now 1 to 8,000. The reason is that the doctors and health workers keep moving out, they go for greener pastures where they are enticed by being paid in foreign currency. The developed countries are seriously poaching our doctors and health workers.
“This year alone, we have lost 39 doctors and in the last three years, we have lost about 790 health staff including 85 nurses. The loss of health workers are either by retirement, abscondment or resignation,” he said.
Abdullahi disclosed that the state has 450 doctors in its general hospitals, private hospitals and federal medical centres.
He expressed optimism that the medical human resources gap in the state would soon be addressed as the state government is making plans to recruit about 400 health workers in 2022
