Medical experts in Ogun State have urged the government at all levels to tackle brain drain in the country’s health sector, saying that poor welfare packages and poor remuneration of staff made them seeks for greener pastures abroad.

Medical Director, Federal Medical Centre, (FMC), Idi-Aba, Abeokuta, Prof. Adewale Musa-Olomu, one of the guests at the 2022 Biennial General Meeting And Scientific Conference, with the theme, “Effective Leadership And Management Of The Health Sector”, said that it was very imperative for the government at all levels to address poor remuneration in health sector, so as to reduce Nigerian doctors seeking for greener pastures overseas.

“So many of our colleagues in Nigeria have moved for greener pastures abroad and if this is not tackled, the health sector will be highly affected. The only solution is for government to make adequate budgetary provisions so that doctors and other health workers will be motivated and well remunerated,” he said.

Also speaking, the Ogun State Head of Service, Dr. Nofiu Aigoro, admitted that it is essential for the medical practitioners to be fully participated and involved in leadership management, so as to move health sector to the greater heights.

He said it is high timed the health personnel should prepared themselves for the task ahead in leadership role, saying that the ideas of no time to participate in leadership and management role in health sector should be jettisoned.

In his submission, the National President, MDCAN, Dr. Victor Makanjuola, said that it was worrisome at the rate of brain drain in the country, noting that it was pathetic that most doctors were leaving the country for Saudi Arabia and other European Countries for a better offer.

He said: “The rate of brain drain in the country is worrisome, I’m afraid of what the future holds and the rate of the younger ones, especially some of our colleagues who work abroad and know how much they are paid and how they are being taken care of.”

One of the guest speaker, Dr. Adefemi Oladiran Afolabi, a Consultant General Surgeon at University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, said that health care system in the midst of global pandemic and in a time of great uncertainty, needs a good leadership with focused training to meet the interpersonal system and problem-solving challenge facing health sector, noting leadership is a conceptual rigorous and field-tested framework to enable health workers foster innovation.

He added that an effective health care leader during a crisis require to engage stakeholders across the system and often influence them over whom you have no formal authority, saying the Covid-19 pandemic was the most dire public health crisis the global population has faced in the recent times.

Another speaker, Dr. Bamidele Mutiu, a Consultant Microbiologist, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) and Head of Lagos Bio-repository Bank, said leadership allows acceptance of diversity within the healthcare workers, noting that if the leaders provide mutual support, it would enable support and care within the environment.

He noted that employees from various backgrounds feel a sense of recognition as their leaders accept and understand their differences, saying no organisms could survive without a very good and conducive environment.

In their respective remarks, the outgoing Chairman, MDCAN, Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Idi-Aba, Abeokuta, Dr. Titilola Ibiyemi, and the Chairman, Biennial General Meeting, Planning Committee, Dr. Taiwo Olunuga, a Consultant Cardiologist, said that the leader must lead and manage well, especially in a very crucial sector like healthcare, saying that he/she must be a good example and role model that the followers could emulate.

They said that apart from having a sound interpersonal relationship within the health sector, relationship with environment was also important as exemplified by the impact of the recent pandemic, saying that there is a need for us to live peaceably with the environment, be it microbes, climate or the natural resources God has endowed us with.