Japa: Over 100 psychiatric doctors left Nigeria in one year – Prof

No fewer than 100 psychiatric doctors left the country to practise abroad in the last one year, Prof. Taiwo Obindo, the President of Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria (APN), has disclosed.

Obindo spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Thursday, July 18, 2024 while examining the rate of brain drain in psychiatric profession in Nigeria in 2023.

He decried that the psychiatric profession was the worst hit by the trending brain drain syndrome ongoing in the Nigerian medical sector.

He said that brain drain was affecting the psychiatric practice/profession more than other professions in terms of the psychiatric nurses, psychiatric doctors including all other caregivers and health workers in the field.

According to him, for every five psychiatric doctors trained in Nigeria, three out of them leave the country to practise abroad.

Obindo lamented that the country had the requisites to train medical personnel, but lacked the ability to maintain, retain and sustain them.

The professor noted that having a psychiatric qualification, experience or certificate was a visa on its own because medical institutions abroad were looking for such personnel and were ready to offer them good/enticing remuneration.

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“Many practitioners in the psychiatric field have left the country to practise abroad; though the exact figure may not be there.

“But, I can categorically state that more than 100 trained psychiatric doctors have left to practise abroad in the last one year.

“In fact, for every five psychiatric doctors trained in Nigeria, three out of them leave the country to practise abroad.

“As I am talking to you now, one psychiatric practitioner somewhere is leaving or planning to leave the country to practise abroad, and it is as rampant and bad as that,” he said.

Also speaking, the Medical Director of Federal Neuro-psychiatric Hospital Yaba, Dr. Olugbenga Owoeye, said the hospital focused on training and retraining of more psychiatric doctors to fill the vacuum created by brain drain syndrome in the hospital.

Owoeye, who decried the effects of brain drain in the hospital, said it had resulted to drastic reduction of manpower, particularly the psychiatric doctors and nurses.

According to him, to close the vacuum created by the constant migration of the psychiatric practitioners to overseas, the hospital has resolved to be training more doctors.

He said that the hospital had trained no fewer than 90 consultant psychiatric doctors and nurses, who were practising in different states of the country and abroad.

The Star