Ondo State Worst Hit By Brain Drain In South West – NMA

Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has described Ondo State as the state with the highest number of Medical doctors and other health workers leaving the service of the state governments in the South-west.

The association said the development became more pronounced in the state due to the non-payment of salaries and other bonuses of health workers in the state.
The chairman of NMA Dr Stella Adegbehingbe disclosed that the state government is currently owing medical doctors four months’ salary.

Addressing journalists in Akure, the state capital, said hER tenure as the chairman of NMA started in 2020 and will end this year as the association has begun the process of getting her successor through the election.

Speaking on her stewardship in the last two years, Dr Adegbehingbe said her era had been filled with many prospects and challenges, stating that the major issue yet unsolved remained the nonpayment of salaries of her members by the state government.

She said, “The issue of brain drain of medical doctors and other health workers, we have not started to feel the impacts because it is very massive and it is not only in Ondo States, though Ondo State is the worst hit in the South West and that is the truth. The national body and the state body of NMA have been engaging the government.
“Immediately the percentage payment started, we knew there would be problems. We also appealed to the government to be proactive so that these medical doctors would be encouraged because once they start leaving, getting them back will be very difficult,’’ he said.