The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) have stated that they are not in support of the ban by the Federal Government on leave of absence, The Herald reports.
They disclosed this to newsmen on Tuesday, stating that the Federal Government should rather address the pull factors making health workers migrate abroad in search of greener pastures.
Recall that the Minister of State for Health, Dr. Tunji Alausa, last Saturday, revealed that the government directed that health workers going abroad to seek greener pastures must resign their appointments before embarking on such journeys, adding that the era of health workers moving to other countries in search of better offers after applying for a leave of absence was no longer acceptable.
Reacting to this, the President of NARD, Dr Dele Abdullahi, stated that the directive by the government was a knee-jerk and fire-brigade approach to addressing brain drain in the country.
He noted that most doctors who take leave of absence are the ones going to come back, adding that if all doctors are denied a leave of absence, then it will affect health workers who go for training outside and within the country.
“Healthcare workers, like other civil servants, are being guided by the civil service rule, and healthcare workers leaving the country don’t take leave of absence, most of them resign and some abscond.
“I get where this is coming from because different excuses have been given as regards why we have a shortage of healthcare workers in the country, which is not true. They say they want to increase the recruitment of health workers but have they taken raw statistics of what the recruitment has been in the last two years, and how many of the newly recruited are within the system?” he stated.