Nigerian gov’t urged to increase incentives, create enabling environment for doctors
National Guild of Medical Directors (GMD) on Tuesday appealed to government at all levels to create an enabling environment and provide attractive incentives for doctors and other health workers.
Dr Raymond Kuti, President, GMD said this in a communique issued at the end of the guild’s Annual General Meeting (AGM).
The theme of the AGM was ‘ Human Resource Management for Healthcare: Challenges, Strategies and Opportunities’, according to a report by the News Agency of Nigeria.
“Poor working conditions and weak infrastructure with chronic underfunding are compounding the issue with increased workload and overwork for those who remain in service.
“Limited career opportunities for advancement compounded by political interference and the lack of performance-based promotion.
”This leads to low morale and poor attitude amongst the health workforce and the pervasive challenging political climate and insecurity is an important reason for uninhibited brain drain,” Kuti said.
He said the lack of adherence to the Commonwealth Code of Practice for International Recruitment of Health Workers made it easy for other countries to recruit medical professionals with impunity.
Kuti said the guild had however identified strategies that can be adopted by government and private sector organisations to retain doctors in Nigeria and curb brain drain.
”One of such strategies is for the organisations to provide career advancement programmes and opportunities by investing in training, learning and development programmes to keep abreast of new innovations.
“Develop and implement enhanced health sector salary and incentives schemes especially in deprived areas to improve quality of life.
“Skills such as effective communications, resilience, leadership, emotional intelligence, empathy, and quality assurance management must be actively taught to health professionals-starting early in schools.
”This will also help to improve communication channels and provide effective, ethical leadership and governance in healthcare institutions,” he said.
The Guild suggested that Nigerian resident doctors in training in the diaspora should be able to come home for short, specialised training periods that will be counted as part of their training.
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