Get Guardian on Google*Decries ratio one doctor to 9,083 patients
*Says over 35% of Nigerian children face malnutrition
The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has said it will monitor the enforcement of its new 24-hour call duty limit through Chief Residents of Departments and Centre Presidents across the 91 centres in the country where doctors work.
NARD President, Dr Mohammad Usman Suleiman, who disclosed this in a chat with The Guardian, yesterday, said that the Chief Residents and Centre Presidents would brief the NARD National Secretariat on the level of compliance in hospitals nationwide.
Suleiman also said that the association had not received any response so far from the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare on the directive, saying: “It is why we are calling on the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to look into this.”
He, however, emphasised that the decision was necessary due to the heavy workload faced by doctors.
According to him, while the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends one doctor to 600 patients, Nigeria has only about 11,000 resident doctors serving more than 240 million people, giving a ratio of 1 to 9,083.
The NARD President said that the reality is that patients were already suffering under the weight of excessive call duty.
He further said that more measures to improve doctors’ welfare and reduce burnout would be communicated by the association in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, the NARD has said that over 35 per cent of Nigerian children under five years are affected by malnutrition, describing the menace as a critical public health challenge.
In a post on X yesterday, the association stated: “Malnutrition contributes significantly to child mortality. It also impacts cognitive development, disease susceptibility, and national productivity.”
The body, therefore, solicited support for sustainable nutritional programmes to protect children’s health nationwide.
