The Medical Guild, Lagos chapter, has called on the Lagos State Government to address the shortage of medical professionals to forestall collapse in the state’s health sector. The guild’s Chairman, Dr Babajide Saheed, said the shortage of health workers was affecting health care delivery, patient satisfaction and general health indices in the state. He said the shortage of health workers, especially medical and dental doctors, had put a lot of strain on doctors and other workers, with a doctor attending to no fewer than 100 patients daily.

 

“Things have deteriorated to the level where some doctors are developing health challenges. It is our view that if nothing is done about this shortage of doctors, coupled with the level of brain drain in the medical profession, the health service in Lagos State will soon collapse.

 

“In the states’ Health Service Commission, we have less than 2,000 doctors and what we need is about 4,000. In the last two years, about 300 doctors were employed and 160 of the doctors have left,” Saheed said.

 

The Medical Guild chairman also urged the government to ensure that each primary health centre had a doctor as this would reduce the pressure on the secondary and tertiary health institutions in the state. “We have about 300 PHCs in the state and only 60 of these PHCs have doctors. If doctors are there, more people would use the centres,” Saheed said.