Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has said that Nigerians spend $1billion annually on medical tourism, adding that 9,000 doctors left the country for the United Kingdom, United States of America and Canada in two years (2016-2018), leaving the country with just 4.7 per cent specialists.
This, the NMA said, has negatively impacted the country’s health care system.
Speaking at the association’s maiden annual lecture, theme: “Brain Drain and Medical Tourism: The Twin Evil in Nigeria’s Health System,” on Monday in Abuja, NMA president, Professor Innocent Ujah, said Africa, including Nigeria, was encountering a health workforce crisis.
Noting that human resources for health represents one of the six pillars of a strong and efficient health system, Ujah said, “The Nigerian health sector today groans under the devastating impact of huge human capital flight which now manifests as brain drain.”
He said the huge amount Nigerians were injecting into medical tourism was weakening Nigeria’s economy.