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Twelve states of the Federation currently have less than 200 qualified trained doctors.

This is according to the data obtained from the state of health of the nation report found on the website of the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare by our correspondents on Tuesday in Abuja.

Since 2021, Nigeria has continued to witness a huge trend in the migration of doctors and other categories of health workers to other countries, leaving behind a huge shortage back home.

The year 2022 represents the peak of the migration of medical doctors, with over 3000 doctors requesting for letter of good standing from the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, according to a report by Channels Television.

As of December 2022, the United Kingdom is the destination for 68 per cent of Nigeria’s medical and dental professionals who migrated out of Nigeria through MDCN. Other countries of destinations are Canada (10 per cent), USA (seven per cent), UAE (five per cent), Australia (three per cent), Ireland (three per cent), Saudi Arabia (one per cent) and Maldives (one per cent) (Note that this figure does not represent the total migration of medical and dental professionals but only those that informed MDCN about their migration). 89% of all external migrants indicated that their reasons for external migration are for professional practice.

In March 2025, the National Association of Resident Doctors noted that only about 11,899 resident doctors are currently practising in Nigeria.

While some states, according to the State of the Health report, seem to have tons of doctors, others have a meagre.

According to the report, Abia, Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Cross River, Ekiti, Gombe, Jigawa, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara and Niger were listed as states with less than 200 doctors.

The President of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors, Dr Tope Osundara affirmed that the ongoing brain drain is affecting the limited healthcare workers in the country.

“Doctors are leaving, and they will continue to leave. I’m sure some people are planning to leave soon. The necessary steps must be taken to save the healthcare sector.

He also warned that the increasing migration of doctors will continue to lead to longer patient wait times and delays in surgeries, particularly for critical cases like cancer, due to a lack of post-operative nursing care.

“It will increase the rate of growth of the malignancy, which will have consequences on health outcomes. The health indices are not going to be favourable for us. Mobility and mortality will increase.”

He, however, urged the government to retain doctors in the country, offering attractive and adequate incentives, warning that without proper support, nurses will continue to migrate.

“People think when we say that government should take action, we are only referring to money, but it is not. We are talking about the working conditions, the security, the tools to work with, and the general welfare package. Some doctors can’t even boast of having a car.

“Even if you ask students in medical students, most of them already have plans to leave the country, and we need to specifically work towards keeping them in the country.”

He added that patriotism cannot thrive when basic needs are unmet, stressing that better treatment and appreciation of nurses would encourage them to remain in the country.

The President of the Association of Nigerian Private Medical Practitioners, Dr. Kayode Adesola, has raised concerns over the worsening shortage of medical personnel in the country, warning that it is leading to longer patient wait times, poor healthcare delivery, rising morbidity, and preventable deaths.

Dr Adesola attributed the exodus of healthcare workers to insecurity, poor salaries, and inadequate working conditions.

He emphasised that despite Nigeria having some of the best-trained doctors, many are leaving due to lack of support.

He called on the government to remove doctors’ pay from the general salary scale, improve the work environment, and address the security threats facing medical professionals. Without urgent action, he warned, the healthcare system will continue to deteriorate.

“It’s not just about the money being paid as salaries or allowances, we are also talking about the environment in which we work. In recent years, doctors have been targeted for kidnapping.

“We are also faced with multiple taxes, which is discouraging. The doctor-to-patient ratio is getting worse, and we need to do something urgent about it.”

The Chairman of Gombe State Joint Health Sector Unions, Martins Lekke, decried the impact of fewer than 200 doctors on health workers in the state, stressing that increased workload encourages failures.

Lekke, who spoke via telephone interview with our correspondent in Gombe, said the state had yet to employ nurses in the last six years.

He said, “I may not be able to talk about doctors. We have a limited number of doctors and it’s affecting the services. Everyone has their own level of performance, if three were supposed to attend to an individual and now it’s an individual that is attending to over 10, there will be trouble.

“Patients will suffer because the little number attending to them will witness wear and tear as human beings. There will be tiredness, chances of error will increase, the receiver of the care may suffer.”

Lekke noted that other health workers will suffer because of the work relationship, saying “a medical doctor makes a mistake in his prescription, I may not get the right answers. The number of nurses have reduced drastically, which means our workload has doubled or tripled for the past six years no nurse has been employed whether officially or otherwise, some retired, a very good number moved from state to federal because of the disparity in salaries. Workload has already increased.”

“For instance, I was at the State Specialist Hospital pediatric ward with just two nurses on duty and 40 patients. The workload is higher with increased chances of failure, if you go to the maternity ward and a woman has a problem that requires the attention of a doctor and you have only one chance that the doctor might have been on call throughout the night, no wonder people become aggressive, frustrated and the interest of the work may not be there and it affects us,” Lekke added.

As of the time of filing this report, the Gombe State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Habu Dahiru, is yet to answer calls placed to his line and questions sent through the ministry’s Information Office,r Hauwa Theman, are yet to get answers.

Meanwhile, in Benue State, the Japa syndrome and the quest to get rich quickly are major factors responsible for the shortage of medical doctors.

The State Commissioner for Health, and chairman of the Joint Health Sector Union, Dr Yanmar Ortese and Benjamin Ioryem, respectively, disclosed this in a separate telephone chat on Wednesday.

According to the JOHESU boss, some medical doctors, after graduation, declined to proceed with the residency program but opted to open private hospitals.

Despite this, the duo argued that the dearth of medical doctors has not affected health service delivery in the state.

In his submission, the state commissioner for health said that the state government had adopted short and long-term measures to fill in the gap created by japa syndrome.

Dr Ortese said, “Government has commenced a bond programme for clinical medical students (400-600 level) to be receiving N150,000 monthly and after graduation, they will have to work for two years with the state.

“After this, they will decide whether they want to go or continue to work with us, aside this, the state is open to employ any medical doctors.

The commissioner who said that 358 clinical medical students had been approved for first phase of the bond further said that the stipend of N100,000 monthly for corps doctors was to encourage corps members to choose the state for their mandatory one year service.

Corroborating the commissioner, the state chairman of JOHESU said that patients do not suffer delay in accessing medical attention due to measures the state government had put in place.

He explained that under the bond system, both the primary and secondary healthcare would be given priority.

On his part, the Ekiti State Commissioner for Health, Dr Oyebanji Filani, said the state government has taken a proactive step in conjunction with the state caucus at the National Assembly to address the shortage of doctors in its healthcare facilities.

Filani, who said that new doctors would soon resume at the state facilities courtesy of the arrangement, said that pending the time, the state government was embarking on multi-pronged approach to ensure that the present shortfall did not have negative impact on the delivery of quality healthcare.

The commissioner, in a chat in Ado Ekiti on Wednesday, dismissed report listing the state among those battling with less than 200 medical doctors, saying, “That is not correct. In Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti, and Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido Ekiti alone, we have over 200 doctors.

“We have doctors in our (state) primary and secondary health facilities. But do we have enough? Certainly, we can do better. That is why Governor Biodun Oyebanji is working together with the National Assembly.

“The governor and the Ekiti State Caucus at the National Assembly have put together a plan to ensure that we get more doctors in. So, in the coming weeks, we will see more doctors in the state. That allows us to send them to all the health facilities that we have,” Filani said.

The commissioner, who said the state had continued to offer effective and efficient services, said, “We are very aggressive about qualitative healthcare delivery, we are upscaling our health workers to ensure that there are no gaps, and we are using National Youth Service Corps health medical officers to address some of the gaps.

“Also, we continue to encourage our doctors and all the other health professionals to be able to provide the tasks and we are grateful to them because they are doing a lot of work,” he said.

The Chairman, Joint Health Sector Union in Ekiti Estate, Olwafemi Ajoloko, said that although the state government was trying to make life comfortable for medical and health workers, it had not been easy to cope with the shortage of doctors.

Ajoloko, who said shortage of doctors was not limited to Ekiti State or Nigeria, but a global issue, said that doctors had not been willing to come to Ekiti State despite very good pay package, added, “There was a time advertisement to recruit doctors was placed, but no more than two doctors came.

“I will say it is interesting because at present, what Ekiti is paying is the same thing they are paying at the federal level. So if we have this, I see no reason they cannot come. Relatively, Ekiti State salary is better than many states.

“Most of those doctors are complaining about modern equipment, which Ekiti State Government is improving on seriously. Everybody will want to develop their skills. I am sure that by the time the present administration completes all the renovations and equipping the hospitals to a reasonable standard, it would attract the doctors and health workers”.

Ajoloko, speaking on the present situation, said, “In some local governments, we have just a doctor managing two, three health facilities. Which means if the doctor leaves a place now and is in another facility, and per adventure, there is a patient in a facility he left, it means they have to refer the patient to where the doctor is, so it is affecting.”

The Bauchi State Commissioner of Health, Sani Damban, stated that the state government is employing certain measures to ensure the shortage of doctors does not affect the quality of health delivery.

While acknowledging that the state currently battles less than 200 medical doctors, Damban noted that “We employed the service of private doctors in three categories.

“First are foreign doctors from Egypt who work for us, then medical doctors from other tertiary hospitals who might be on leave or not on duty at their place of work.”

The commissioner also told The PUNCH that “Some of our retired doctors who are still energetic are also engaged to fill in the gap.”