The Kwara State government, during the week, lamented the dearth of medical doctors in the state’s health facilities, describing it as a worrisome situation.

According to the Executive Secretary Hospital Management Board, Dr. Abdulraheem AbdulMalik, at a ministerial press briefing organised by the Ministry of Communication, the situation is linked to the brain drain, popularly called ‘Japa’ syndrome, that is mostly affecting the country’s health sector.

Abdulmalik said that the board could not find doctors to recruit to work with the state government, “despite approval given by Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq to recruit new doctors.”

Blaming the situation on the ‘Japa syndrome’, the executive secretary said, “We have approval of His Excellency to recruit doctors, but we can’t just find the doctors to recruit. Doctors are hot cakes now. If a doctor resigns in the morning, he will get another job in the afternoon”.

Abdulmalik, who stated that the state currently has only 99 medical personnel, against the required 180 to 200, added that only 96 are on the government’s payroll.

“The three medical doctors who left the service returned after the recent increase in doctors’ salaries by Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq.

“We actually had 96, but after His Excellency increased the salary, three of them who ‘Japa’ came back. We currently have 99. We’re expecting more at the moment. We need about 180 to 200 medical doctors,” he stated.

Consequently, the board said it was developing a software application that would give patients, visiting its 45 health facilities, information on the number of doctors available at a particular period of time, to reduce the usual delay in keeping appointments with doctors and avert a situation where patients would collapse while waiting to see a doctor at the hospitals.

According to him, the challenge is more pronounced in rural areas, adding that the board was working out remuneration and incentives for doctors, “with resources available, which will be at par with what is obtainable in the western world, where most of the doctors were leaving for greener pastures”.

Abdulmalik also hinted that the state government has a retention plan to close the gap in the required number of medical doctors in the state, adding that the plan would commence in four years.

“On recruitment, we have presented prerequisites to The Excellency on actually harvesting doctors from medical schools. The state government sponsors you as a student for a year or two years, and you pay back by working for the state for those two years in which the state has invested in you.

“That means we will continue to have a cycle of students. So, the state government sponsors you for three years, you work for the state government for three years before you ‘Japa’. That means there is a closing of the gap for medical doctors. Of course, that would kick off in about three to four years, because we are starting from their Clinical Level, which is a 400-level course.”

Fielding questions on training of nurses and fear that the trained nurses may leave the country for greener pastures, Abdulmalik said: “They will ‘japa’, regardless, but we are not as desperate for the nurses as we are for doctors because the social circumstances favour nurses staying in the country. Most nurses are women, and their movements often depend on where their husbands are stationed. Some do ‘Japa’, but we are not as desperate for nurses”.

He said that despite the challenges, the state’s health facilities have continued to see improved enrolment, noting that between January and April this year alone, the 45 state health facilities attended to 43,065 patients, including 12,000 pregnant women, of whom 2,000 were newly registered.

Abdulmalik also disclosed that the state’s health facilities carried out 1,000 surgeries in the first quarter of 2015.

Additionally, the executive secretary stated that the board recorded 1,384 child deliveries during the period, with 131 of these carried out through caesarian section.

He mentioned the 131 caesarian sections as an improvement, representing 9.5 per cent, a figure he said approached the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended range of 10- 15 per cent.

Abdulmalik also reported that 30 mortalities were recorded across health facilities during the period under review.

He announced plans by the state government to partner with indigenous drug manufacturers to reduce the amount of foreign exchange the state was spending on procuring drugs abroad.

In his own account, the Commissioner for Justice, Ibrahim Sulyman, represented by Barrister A. Grillo, stated that 437 criminal cases were received in various courts, including magistrates, area courts, and high courts, in the first quarter of the year.

He mentioned that 47 of these cases had been concluded, while 387 cases remain pending in different courts both within and outside the state.

The commissioner also reported that a total sum of N689 million was generated for the coffers of the state government through the vetting of contract sum agreements.