By AYODELE AJOGE, Birnin-Kirbi

The chairman of the Nigeria Medical Associaton (NMA) Kebbi State Branch has raised an alarm over the rate at which trained and specialised doctors are moving out of the state government and Federal Government services, describing it as most unfortunate and dangerous to both tiers of governments.

Doctor Ashiru Ladan who is the chairman, NMA Kebbi State Branch, while fielding questions from the Nigerian Tribune stated that no fewer than 10 medical doctors have left the Federal Medical Centre in Birnin-Kebbi for greener pastures in the last one year.

He added that only recently four of his members had left. Two left for the Middle East, Saudi Arabia to be precise, and two others left for United Kingdom (UK) due to poor welfare and poor condition of service from both the Federal and the Kebbi State government.

He expressed that medical officers are living the state for the other states of Nigeria where the welfare package is far better than what is obtainable in Kebbi. The state is now faced with internal and external migration of medical doctors which he urged the government to half the situation sooner than later.

Dr Ladan gave an example of his colleague who trained himself in India as a Laparoscopic and Endoscopy surgeon, getting back home he couldn’t get facilities to work with and after a while, he decided to go to Europe noticing that in the next five years he may have forgotten what he spent his personal money to train himself for, therefore, he left the services of Federal Medical Centre, Birnin-Kebbi.

He emphasized that the welfare package of medical officers here in the country is nothing to write home about, pointing out that out there in other climes the welfare package of medical officers is between US$2000 to US$3000 while a specialist earns between US$5000 to US$6000, compared to the Naira whose value is going down.

(Nigerian Tribune)