MDCN calls for action over shortage of doctors

The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) has stated that the country is in dire need of medical doctors owing to the growing population of the country as well as the brain drain syndrome.

According to the Registrar of the council, who spoke at the third induction ceremony of the medical and dental graduating students of the University of Medical Sciences (UNIMED), Ondo State, the situation needs urgent attention.

The Registrar, who was represented by the Deputy Registrar and Head of Department of Planning, Research, and Statistics of the MDCN, Dr. Tijjani Mandaka, the World Health Organisation (WHO), has affirmed that the number of medical doctors practicing in the country was inadequate.

He charged students to develop an interest in medicine for the country to meet the WHO standards in the country.

“We are in need of more medical doctors in the country today. We are far from what the World Health Organisation demands because our population in Nigeria keeps increasing and there is the need to meet up with the standard. Therefore, it is important for the young ones to develop interest in medicine,” he said.

Inducting the new set of graduating medical and dental students, the MDCN boss charged them to treat human lives with the absolute fairness of God and in line with medical ethics, threatening that their licenses could be withdrawn if they failed to live up to the oath they took publicly.

In his lecture delivered at the ceremony, Guild of Medical Directors, Dr. Abiodun Raymond Kuti, admonished the new medical doctors against unethical practices in the discharge of their duties.

Kuti, who spoke on “Be yourself: The Real, Not the Ideal,” charged the new doctors to contribute meaningfully to society through their chosen profession.

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He enjoined the new doctors to be their real selves and not to pretend to be who they’re not, adding that society expects more from them and they cannot afford to fail society.