How to reduce brain drain amid pandemic – Expert

The President of the Commonwealth Medical Association and a former president, Nigeria Medical Association, Dr. Osahon Enabulele has urged governments at all levels to deploy pragmatic actions and strategies not only to grow the health workforce but also retain them.

He called on governments to ensure that healthcare workers remain in the country. He pointed out that the disparity in the welfare between what obtains in Nigeria and in most African countries compared to the developed economies as responsible for health workers seeking greener pasture elsewhere.

Enabulele said beyond rhetoric, “what are the actions and systems and strategies on the ground to retain these health workers and prevent them from travelling out of the country, especially now that restrictions have been relaxed.”

He added: “This matter is not new, but what is worrisome is that rather than addressing it in a more responsive way, we are still doing little to prevent this whole phenomenon of brain drain…”

It is going to be our loss and that of the continent because Africa today has over 25 per cent of the disease burden of the global community, yet we have only about three per cent of the health workforce.”