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Japa: Our hospitals will be empty in two years, CMDs tell Reps - DAILY TRUST
By Balarabe Alkassim
Chief Medical Directors (CMDs) of University Teaching Hospitals and Federal Medical Centres (FMCs) have raised the alarm that tertiary health hospitals are facing threats of becoming empty as doctors, nurses and other skilled health workers leave in droves due to poor remuneration.
They lamented that despite the federal government investment in health infrastructure, the trend has continued unabated and affecting healthcare delivery in the country.
The Chief Medical Director (CMD), Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Professor Wasiu Adeyemo and the Chief Medical Director (CMD), University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Professor Jesse Abiodun and others raised the alarm at the 2025 budget defence session before the House of Representatives Committee on Health Institutions.
LUTH CMD, Professor Adeyemo, informed the committee that the rate at which medical workers are leaving the country is alarming, hence the need to act fast to address the situation.
He said, “People resign, retire not even retirement, resignation almost every day. Yes. In the next one or two years, we are going to have all our hospitals empty. We need to do something about remuneration of all the health care workers.
“Otherwise, government is putting a lot of money in infrastructure, and we are going to have empty hospitals. The major reason why people leave is for economic reasons. Consultants are earning less than $1,000”.
Giving details of the Hospital’s 2024 budget performance, the CMD informed that, they had a total budget of N19.2 billion out of which personnel has N13.57 billio and a total overhead of N33.2 million.
