By Aminu Kutama
The Kano State branch of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) said the Kano State government has only 533 medical doctors on its payroll.
The state chairman of NMA, Dr Abdullahi Kabir Sulaiman, disclosed this on Monday while briefing journalists on the activities lined up to mark this year’s physicians week in the state.
Dr Sulaiman lamented the brain drain in the healthcare sector in the state, blaming it on the poor condition of service and remuneration of healthcare workers.
“From the breakdown available to me now. We have 1,063 doctors in Kano state. Out of this number 533 are working under the Kano state government (even though most of them are house officers or undergoing internship), we have 400 in Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, 96 in National Orthopedic Hospital Dala and 84 doctors working in other private and specialised hospitals,” Dr Sulaiman said.
He said many doctors leave the state civil service for jobs at Federal Government hospitals and other states with better welfare packages.
Dr Sulaiman also advised that if the government would address the pay disparity between state and federal health workers, it would mitigate the problem of internal and external brain drain.
“If the government would address pay disparity between state and federal government, that would stop doctors from going to Ghana, Uganda, and South Africa, among others.
“You know, Nigerian doctors go to even African countries, not only the UK or Europe. This is to show you how bad the situation is.
“People would want to work with state government than federal if the salary doesn’t have disparity,” he added.
