By Sade Oguntola

Copyright tribuneonlineng

PIONEER Medical Director of the Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta, Professor Emmanuel Otolorin has called on the Federal Government to consider how to turn brain drain in the medical and health sector into brain gain, instead of policies that can limit the career growth of health practitioners.

This is as the 1995 Medical and Dental Graduates, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan (CoMUI), in commemoration of the 30-year post-graduation reunion, donated medical equipment and facilities to the tune of N90 million to their alma mater.

This includes 2 laryngoscope video instruments; solar alternative energy (20 KV) to the Restorative Department of the Faculty of Dentistry; an upgrade of the solar alternative energy of the Family Medicine Department of UCH from 2.5 KV to 5.0 KV; an arthroscope; a handheld digital spirometer; a sleep apnoea screening monitor; an ultrasound blood flow detector; and one digital video colposcope and its accessories.

Professor Otolorin, in his lecture entitled “From Brain Drain to Brain Gain”, organised as part of the celebration at the Paul Hendrickse Lecture Theatre, College of Medicine, University College Hospital (UCH) premises, said the federal government needs to urgently tackle the push factors responsible for driving healthcare workers out of the country.

Professor Otolorin said, “Brain drain is mostly caused by the push factors and the pull factors. The push factors from Nigeria are mostly poor salaries and allowances, insecurity in the country, lack of equipment and supplies, and a working environment that is not conducive for healthcare professionals.

“And the pull factors are, of course, that better quality of life abroad, opportunities for more training, career progression, and appropriate remuneration without having to go on strike all the time.

“So the advice for the government is to address these factors, mostly the push factors. Work on security, work on infrastructure in our health facilities, and hire more staff because there are many who want to work in some of these hospitals.

“Our doctors are under stress, they are overworked, they are overburdened, and when you are stressed, you are working in a toxic environment, you are bound to make mistakes, and then you don’t feel that you are well remunerated for all your efforts. So we need to address all of those push factors.

“At the same time, we should take advantage of those who have gone. Even if they don’t want to come back, we should take advantage of the skills that they have learnt and have, through the diaspora network, to help to develop our younger ones.In fact, we can create new opportunities for training them to the level of those places where they are going so that they don’t even have to leave the country.

“And then for those who can’t come back, we can provide opportunities for them to be engaged in our universities temporarily, either in teaching assignments, curriculum review, or even organizing seminars and webinars, like this alumni group is doing for the students. So that way we harness their skills.”

In his remarks, the president of the COMUI 1995 Medical and Dental Graduating Class, Dr Olakunle Johnson, said the reunion is a thanksgiving to God for his goodness and mercies to this set, christened “Unique Class”, which has at present 16 professors and counting; the CMD of LUTH (Lagos University Teaching Hospital), Professor Wasiu Lanre Adeyemo; a former health commissioner in Abia State, Dr Okechukwu Ogah; and its members in various fields of medicine and dentistry, excluding neurosurgery, both in the country and diaspora.

Dr Johnson said the current executive of the COMUI 1995 Medical and Dental Graduating Class has had a remarkable journey so far, achieving several milestones, including registering the class as an association with a standard government registration and developing a guiding constitution, as well as instituting a Group Life Insurance Scheme for the class.

The highlight of the event was the decoration and presentation of honours to some of their teachers who were also at the event.

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