The House of Representatives has passed for second reading, the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act (Amendment) Bill, 2022, which seeks to make it compulsory for graduates in medical and dental fields torender services within Nigeria for five years before being granted a full licence.
Leading the debate on the bill, Johnson noted that the amendment was “in order to make quality health services available to Nigerians considering the growing trend of the Nigeria population and the current emigration rate of the Nigerian-trained medical and dental practitioners abroad.”
He said, “ Nigeria currently has only 24,000 licensed medical doctors available in the country, less than 10 per cent of the number needed to meet the World Health Organisation recommendation.
“I now thought to myself and said, let us look at what is happening. I now noticed that the vacuum is that immediately after housemanship, we notice that most doctors,
because of greener pastures there is a capital flight from Nigeria abroad to UK, America and all that. The Government has invested so much money in training these medical doctors.
Native Reporters
