Gom Mirian, Juliet Jacob Ochenje
The chairman of the House Committee on Health Institutions, , Dr. Amos Magaji, on Tuesday decried the devastating effect of overseas migration of healthcare workers on medical services in Nigeria, saying Lagos State University Teaching Hospital has closed down five wards due to shortage of doctors and nurses.
Dr Magaji described the situation as worrisome, stating that the legislative arm of the government was working to prevent the increasing number of Nigerians from going abroad for medical tourism.
He added that those wards had about 150 beds, while buttressing the huge toll of the “the “japa” syndrome on the country’s health system.
He said: “Nigeria as a nation has found itself in a precarious moment, especially in the healthcare system where japa has taken centre stage. We used to have japa only for nurses, and doctors, but now it has even gone to many departments in the health sector.
“We saw significant problems here. Right now, there are about five wards in LUTH, totalling about 150 beds that have been shut down because there are no nurses and doctors to work in those wards. And these are a result of the ‘Japa’ syndrome we are having.
“As a committee, we will work together with the Federal Government and also with the teaching hospital to find a way out of these national embarrassments that have befallen this country.
“It’s not something that can be fixed in one day, but we are going to be approaching it piecemeal. We are going to do what we can do immediately and what we can do long-term approach to it.
“So, by the grace of God, some of the issues of the ‘japan’, we are actually looking at how to solve this problem, starting even from the enrollment in universities, and then how house officers are employed, and then of course, the residency programme.
“They have sacrificed so much for Nigerians to be healthy, for us to get proper health care. Our hands are on deck, and then that was the reason why if you were here earlier, you discovered that some of the key questions and some of the key things we attended here were things that have to do with delivering affordable and accessible health care to Nigerians.”
