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Professor Julius A. Okojie, OON
Executive Secretary, NUC |
Nigeria requires, at least,
266, 667 Medical Doctors and 21,333 Dentists to
tackle its deficiency in healthcare
delivery and meet the World Health
Organisation (WHO)'s recommended
ideal doctor/patient ratio
of 1: 600. With only about 35, 000
registered Medical Doctors
practicing in the country today,
giving a doctor/patient ratio of 1:
3, 500, Nigeria has a deficit of 231,
667 doctors.”
The Chairperson of the Nigerian
Association of Colleges of Medicine
(NACOM), Prof e ssor
Folasade Ogunsola, who disclosed
this, when she led other executive
members of the Association on a
courtesy visit to the Executive
Secretary, National Universities
Commission (NUC), Professor
Julius A. Okojie, OON, on Thursday,
3 September, 2015, Professor
Ogunsola noted that, with the
present quota for admission into
Medical Schools, less than 3,000
doctors graduated every year. She
said that even if all of them stayed
in the country and no one died and
population growth remained at
zero, she said, it would take a
minimum of 77 years for Nigeria to
achieve this ideal ratio.
The Chairperson revealed the stark
reality that with this imbalance,
about half of the number left the
country or were internally displaced
into other professions, in
addition to the population, which
was growing at a rate of 3.2%
annually, above the world average
of about 1.1%, meaning that it
would take over 100 years to
achieve the desired ratio.
“The situation is worse in Dentistry
where there are less than 3,
000 Dentists in the country and
less than 175 are produced
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| ES, NUC, Prof. Okojie with the President, NACOM, Prof. Folasade Ogunsola during the visit. |
annually. With an ideal ratio of One
Dentist to 7, 500, It would take the
country 103.5 years to meet its
need of 21, 333 Dentists, assuming
all indices are static. There was
therefore an urgent need to
improve the rate of production of
healthcare workers to meet the
needs of Nigeria”, she said.
Professor Ogunsola noted that
Medical education was expensive
everywhere in the world. She
expressed regret that Medical
education in Nigeria was in a crisis
as the capacity of Colleges and
Faculties of Health in the institutions
to produce healthcare professt
sionals in the 21 Century was
gradually being eroded. This, she
said, was due to inadequate funding
that resulted in decay and
inadequate infrastructure as well as
related issues of incessant strikes in
the health sector, coupled with
inadequate technology for practical
works, especially in the Basic
Sciences.
The NACOM Chair said that the
Colleges of Medicine/Health were
usually operated at separate
campuses close to the teaching
hospitals, noting that the funding of
the Medical Schools was through
the main campuses and dependent
on the priority given to them by the
University Management. She
stressed the importance of creating
a funding line for Medical School
items, within the university budget,
for capital projects, including
equipment, overheads and the
Medical Library.
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| Professor Okojie in a group photograph with members of NACOM and NUC Management |
The Provost, University of Lagos
College of Medicine, appealed to
NUC to make a case for a special
intervention fund, through the
Tertiary Education Trust Fund
(TETfund) for simulation laboratories
in Dentistry as well as the
provision of dental chairs for
students' use, since these items
were not always provided for in
setting up the Clinical Skills
Laboratories. She decried the
situation whereby the Teaching
Hospitals were managed by the
Ministry of Health, with little
oversight by the Ministry of
Education, noting that the arrangement
had distorted the purpose for
which these Teaching Hospitals
were set up. She also made a case
for the entry level for professional
Nursing and Physiotherapy, among
others, saying that it was sometimes
difficult to get the professionals
in the field to come into the
academia as they were better paid
in the hospitals than in the universities.
On the new Benchmark Minimum
Academic Standards (BMAS),
proposed for the Medical and
Dental professions, Professor
Ogunsola said that the Association,
which consisted of Provosts and
Deans of Medical Schools in
Nigeria, accepted it wholeheartedly.
She commended the
Executive Secretary and members
of his Management for the BMAS
which, according to her, had put the
necessary pathway in place for
training programmes from the
undergraduate to Ph.D levels in the
Clinical Sciences.
Responding, Professor Okojie said
that there were many issues that
needed to be addressed in the
medical profession. He assured the
delegation that NUC would do all
within its powers to partner with
ES, NUC, Prof. Okojie with the President, NACOM, Prof. Folasade Ogunsola during the visit.
11
MONDAY BULLETIN - A Publication of the office of The Executive Secretary
the Association to tackle them, just
as it was addressing similar challenges
affecting other disciplines in
the Nigerian University System
(NUS), without compromising
standards.
The Executive Secretary stated that
maximum attention should be paid
to revamping the infrastructure in
the existing Medical Schools to
pave way for possible increase in
their carrying capacities. He
advised NACOM to articulate its
demands and challenges, with a
view to providing lasting solutions
to them in the best interest of the
NUS.
Professor Okojie expressed the
hope that TETfund would extend
its funding interventions to Medical
Schools to rebuild their infrastructure
and update the skills of
their personnel. He promised that
the Commission would look into
other issues raised by the NACOM
Chairperson and the Association's
long list of requests to the NUC
such as, the release of BMAS, entry
level for professionals, dichotomy
between Ph.D and Fellowship as
well as other identified grey areas
in the Medical profession.
A member of the NUC Management,
the Director, Academic
Standards (DAS), Dr. Gidado
Kumo, urged the Association to
maintain the existing Minimum
Academic Standards set for the
Medical profession. The Director
of Quality Assurance, Dr. Noel
Saliu, commended the Association
for its useful inputs and involvement
in the Commission's
p r o g r a m m e a c c r e d i t a t i o n
excercise, adding that the visit
would further enhance the existing
cordial relationship between
NACOM and the NUC. He advised
the Association to take advantage
of technology-assisted learning
approaches to further enhance
teaching and learning in the
profession.
Other members of the NUC
Management team at the meeting
were: the Director, Information
and Public Relations, Mallam
Ibrahim Usman Yakasai; Director,
Inspection and Monitoring, Mr.
Felix Olaniyan; while Mr. S. B.
Essien and Engineer Kayode
Odedina represented the Directors
Management Support Services
and Open and Distance Education,
respectively.
In the NACOM delegation were
Professors P. C. Ibekwe, Memfin
Ekpo, Ernest Onwasigwe, G. O. G
Awosanya and Adesegun Fatusi.
Others were Oladejo Azeez and O.
O. Odubunmi.
