The Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) said the number of medical consultants in the country declined to only 6,000 as of February 2024.
MDCAN president, Prof Muhammad Muhammd, disclosed this during the association’s national executive council (NEC) meeting held yesterday in Ilorin, Kwara State.
He said 1,300 consultants left the country in the last five years due to the ‘japa’ syndrome — the exodus of professionals for better opportunities abroad.
The MDCAN president also revealed that with an aging workforce, around 1,700 consultants are over 55, meaning that within the next five years, they’ll retire, further depleting our healthcare workforce.
He further stressed that the country is struggling to produce enough replacements, with only one or two new consultants trained annually, making it impossible to offset the ongoing losses from both emigration and retirement.
“So you can see that the replacement cannot keep up with the loss from ‘Japa’ syndrome and from retirement,” he said.
