The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, has said the migration of doctors to foreign countries is not peculiar to Nigeria.
Ehanire noted that the Federal Government was only concerned with the experienced medical personnel who left the country, saying the FG was working on how to make them still offer virtual service to Nigeria.
The minister disclosed this when he featured on the News Agency of Nigeria ministerial forum in Abuja.
The minister says Federal Government is working towards improving the condition of service of Nigerian doctors to check the migration of the medical personnel.
He said, “At a very senior level of those who have had postgraduate training, we are doing everything we can to improve the conditions of service.
“The health reform committee set up by the President is working and looking at that; we have been talking with the Ministry of Labour on how to do that.
“We are also talking about engaging those who have spent many years abroad; who are specialists who are highly specialised, and who know a lot of high tech medicine, to engage them to work with us even if it is virtually so they can do virtual consultations.
“They can come here every three months or six for a few weeks and do some work hands-on so that we can gain something from their experience and knowledge.
“This is so that we can harvest the knowledge and skills that they developed after working for many years in highly developed countries.”
Ehanire, who described the issue of migration of health workers especially doctors and nurses as a global phenomenon and not peculiar to Nigeria, added that people in those professions were becoming a very mobile professional group.
He said, “I have spoken with health authorities in the United Kingdom, and they have told me that their doctors are also leaving for Canada, New Zealand and other countries where the pay is better.
