UPDATE: Tinubu Waives ‘No Work, No Pay’ Order For Medical Doctors

LATEST: We Will Hire Doctors From Abroad If… – Health Minister

by Victor Ndubuisi
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Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, has said that if the mass exodus of Nigerian doctors persist, the Federal Government may be forced to hire doctors abroad.

But Ehanire said currently there are no plans in place to effect the option.

The minister said this during a monitored programme on Arise Tv- ‘Arise News Night’ on Wednesday.

FG Will Stop Nigerian Doctors From Leaving The Country – Health Minister

Ehanire made the statement against the backdrop of mass movement of Nigerian medical personnel abroad.

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On Wednesday hundreds of medical doctors were at the venue of the recruitment exercise organised by the the Saudi Arabia health ministry.

For weeks, National Association of Resident Doctors in the country have been on strike over government’s failure to meet their demands.

But Ehanire said, “If so many doctors as you see leave our country and go and seek work in other countries, then Nigeria also will have the right to also import other doctors.

“We are not doing that just to make it clear, we are not. But we do know that some people have speculated in the past about Nigeria bringing doctors from outside.”

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He maintained that the country have not started outsourcing,

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The health minister decried that a handful of the doctors who are leaving the country were trained using tax payer’s money.

“It is not something that we are happy with and again, if you look back a very good number of these doctors have been trained at the expense of tax payers’ money and then when you get all your papers right, then you decide to leave. There is a legal question thereabout,” he said.

Explaining plans to tackle the face off between the Federal Government and the NARD, he said the issues raised by the doctors particularly as regards salaries and allowances would be addressed.

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Ehanire explained that the first approach, ” is trying to answer to the problems that they have brought up with regards to their salaries and allowances and then also see about the new demands that they have made.

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“For example, doctors are calling to extend their retirement age up what normally obtained in the Civil Service. They have been given a generous hazard allowance, good life insurance under the circumstances and health workers who lost their lives sadly, we have pushed the insurance companies to respond and about 311 cheques have been issued, so we are doing everything that we can within our means.”

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