NMA urges Sanwo-Olu to raise health workers’ retirement age

The Nigerian Medical Affiliation (NMA), Lagos Tell branch, has known as on Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to straight approve the implementation of an extend within the retirement age for healthcare workers from 60 to 65 years as a measure to curb the affect of the continuing mass exodus of medical mavens.

In a letter by NMA Lagos Chairman, Dr. Saheed Babajide Kehinde, and Deputy Secretary, Dr. Olusola Temiloluwa Soyinka, the affiliation emphasised that raising the retirement age would abet support experienced doctors and mitigate the widening gap induced by the migration of medical mavens in a single other nation.

The charm follows the approval by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the increment in retirement age real thru the health sector, a transfer the NMA says desires to be domesticated and urgently applied by negate governments, especially Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial and medical hub.

Consistent with the NMA, Lagos currently has about 8,000 doctors serving an estimated 30 million residents—an alarming ratio worsened by the continuous mind drain within the health sector.

Kehinde explained that “the healthcare system goes thru an emergency. With inhabitants numbers rising, infrastructure might perchance be built, but who will man it? The mavens are leaving. If the authorities doesn't support folk which might perchance be unruffled right here, the system will collapse.”

He lamented that many experienced doctors are forced into untimely retirement or re-engaged on contract terms that undermine their dignity and limit their effectiveness.

“The contemporary coverage forces doctors to retire at the height of their ride, round age 60, when they're most treasured in terms of capability and mentorship. As any other of reaping the fruits of their coaching, they're both pushed out or recycled as contract workers,” he said.

Kehinde extra criticised the device of expanding medical college admissions as a resolution to mind drain. He powerful that while extra doctors are being trained, many are unruffled leaving the nation almost in the present day after commencement as a consequence of heart-broken working instances and an absence of incentives.

Kehinde added that Lagos Tell has successfully applied associated retirement age extensions for teachers, lecturers, and judicial workers, and there will not be this form of thing as a impartial health workers desires to be excluded.

“The health sector ought to unruffled not be left at the back of. Lagos is the centre of excellence. If the healthcare system collapses right here, it's some distance a reflection of all of the nation,” he warned.

He emphasised that conserving experienced personnel would not most challenging deal with staffing gaps but additionally promote mentorship, uphold official dignity, and alleviate the burden of recruiting and training contemporary personnel under duress.

Kehinde additionally decried the rising crisis going thru younger medical graduates in securing hospital placements for his or her fundamental one-12 months internship, describing the negate of affairs as “a ticking time bomb.”

He powerful that regardless of accelerating enrollment in medical colleges real thru the nation, there used to be no corresponding growth within the series of current hospitals to absorb graduates for internship, a key requirement for his or her official licensing.

“Medical doctors maintain graduated for over a 12 months, some terminate to two years, and are unruffled roaming round having a stare for where to maintain their internship. It’s turning into a severe enviornment,” he lamented.

Consistent with him, while Lagos Tell has made efforts to extend the series of current centres—adding a few total hospitals to the previously small checklist that integrated Gbagada Overall Sanatorium, Lagos College Instructing Sanatorium (LUTH), and the Federal Medical Centre (FMC)—the slots on hand are grossly inadequate as compared to the amount of graduates being churned out.

“ deal of these centres most challenging rob 20 or 30 interns at a time. But, every medical college, each public and non-public, is expanding its student consumption. When they graduate, where maintain they scoot?” he queried.

Kehinde criticised authorities planning, announcing it's “uncoordinated and unsustainable” to extend coaching institutions and not utilizing a structured internship pipeline in station.

“You might perchance maybe maybe also’t put collectively a student for six years and then abandon them to travel for internship slots devour they’re begging for jobs,” he said.

He powerful that the doctors are stranded and aggravated, bringing up that the system will not be pondering forward.

He warned that until urgent steps are taken to accredit extra hospitals and maintain structured internship placement systems, Nigeria can also simply ogle an extra breakdown in healthcare provider continuity and even better rates of mind drain.

“We are producing doctors we cannot absorb. What message are we sending to these younger mavens? That they are not wished?” he asked.

He appealed to federal and negate governments, to boot to the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), to urgently prioritise internship infrastructure and construct it a central fragment of healthcare and education coverage.

“If we don’t fix this bottleneck now, we might perchance be losing even extra doctors to Japa sooner than they ever catch a gamble to support the nation,” Kehinde warned.

He entreated the Lagos Tell authorities to behave without warning in imposing the coverage according to the Federal Government’s THEME-PLUS agenda and national healthcare reform efforts.

“Let folk that maintain chosen to support their nation be allowed to support with dignity and retire with honour,” the letter be taught.