Kwara gov orders replacement of medical staff lost to brain drain

Concerned by the shortage of medical doctors, pharmacists, and nurses in Kwara State, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has directed the management of the state’s Hospital Management Board to undertake an emergency replacement of the existing gaps.

The Executive Secretary of the Board, Dr. Abdulraheem AbdulMalik, disclosed this on Tuesday in Ilorin, at the Q3 ministerial press briefing organised by the Ministry of Communications.

Abdulmalik had recently lamented that the state lacked enough medical doctors and other personnel because of the brain drain syndrome, popularly called ‘japa’.

Abdulmalik, on Tuesday, said the governor had given him and the board a marching order to replace the over 100 medical doctors, three pharmacists and the 25 nurses who left the state service in 2024.

According to him, the state aims to create its own medical personnel for onward recruitment, rather than continuing to depend on outside sources.

“We have had approval of the governor to employ 10 doctors, and we have engaged and sent them to some of those hospitals that were lacking them.

“The governor also directed us to replace the three pharmacists and 25 nurses who left our service in 2024,” he stated.

Abdulmalik also disclosed that his board recorded 3,108 births, including 574 via caesarean section, and noted four maternal deaths.

He stated that the governor has approved the establishment of a blood transfusion centre, mentioning that they were sent to Lagos to study the operations of a similar facility.

“We now want to start producing our own medical personnel; we no longer wish to source them from outside.

“We are now training pharmacists in Kwara to check the uneasiness accompanying the sourcing for them. We want Kwara to join the league of states that produce medical personnel,” he explained.

It would be recalled that Abdulmalik recently said that the state currently has only 99, as against the 180 to 200 medical personnel required for the state.

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