Chairman, Association of Colleges of Medicine of Nigeria, Professor Folashade Ogunsola has said that Nigeria needs extra 200,000 medical doctors in order to meet World Health Organisation standards.
Ogunsola said this while speaking at the opening of a three-day Capacity Development Programme for Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) Academic Staff in Nigerian Universities organised by National Universities Commission on Monday in Abuja.
She said “We will need about 237, 000 medical doctors and we have about 35,000 working in the country today.
“We have trained more than that, many of them have left the country while many others are in different professions — banking, music and so on.
“Medicine is about life; it is the duty of the medical schools to produce people with competences; skills to manage patients.
“Assuming no doctor leaves this country after being trained; going by the number coming from our medical schools every year, it will take us about 100 years to have the number of doctors we need.’’
WHO’s ratio for any country to have enough doctors for its population is 1:600 (one doctor of every 600 persons).