Odili Decries Rising Brain Drain Among Medical Professionals

Former Rivers State governor and pro-chancellor of Pamo University of Medical Sciences (PUMS), Dr. Peter Odili, has decried the rising cases of brain drain among medical professionals in the country.

Odili expressed concern yesterday in Port Harcourt while speaking at the 8th Founders’ Day and 5th Convocation ceremony of PUMS in Port Harcourt.

The convocation ceremony was attended by the Chancellor of the university and former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubukar and executive secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Abdullahi Ribadu, among others.

The former governor said: “At this point, permit me to draw attention to what I consider a silent national issue; the extinct of teachers and practitioners in medical education across the country.

“Ask any administrator in any tertiary hospital, they will tell you that we have been lacking qualified professionals who should help us train these young ones. Why are they leaving? Greener pastures. Executive secretary, your excellences, we need to so something. Let’s make our pasture greener that it is now.”

Odili called for the upward review of the retirement age and renumeration of medical professionals in the country, in order to discourage them from leaving the country in droves.

“Another issue is the retirement age for qualified professionals. Increase it to at least 70. I can tell you from field experience, most of our eminent professors are people who are retired from other universities and they are doing very very well.

“Also, there is the need for the review of the renumeration of medical professionals upwards. With all due respect, judges can adjourn a case for six months,  construction engineers can suspend work but no medical doctor can afford the luxury of adjourning the treatment of a patient who has an emergency condition.”

In his remarks, Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, described PUMS as the flagship of medical education in Nigeria, saying that products of the university will fill some gaps in the country healthcare manpower requirement.

Fubara, who was represented by his deputy, Professor Ngozi Odu, said the state government is happy that the resources it is spending on sponsoring indigenes of the state on the university was not in vain.