The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors has used its ordinary general meeting in Kano State to sound a warning about the state of the country's medical workforce. The gathering was convened under the theme of caring for the caregivers, with a focus on mental health and emotional resilience in residency training. By placing the wellbeing of doctors themselves at the centre of the agenda, the association signalled how pressing it considers the issue to be.
Speakers at the meeting framed the welfare of doctors as a necessity rather than an indulgence. Stress, it was acknowledged, cannot be eliminated entirely from medical practice, but unnecessary suffering can and should be reduced. Care for the caregiver, the meeting heard, is not a luxury, but a professional, ethical, educational and public health necessity, a message aimed at reframing how the system treats those who train within it.
The president of the association expressed concern over what he described as worsening welfare conditions for doctors. He warned that persistent neglect of these conditions could further weaken the nation's health care system. The caution placed the day-to-day treatment of resident doctors within a larger question about the resilience of the health sector as a whole.
To illustrate the scale of the strain, the association pointed to the mismatch between the number of doctors and the size of the population they serve. With Nigeria's population put at around 240 to 250 million, the meeting heard that this number is being catered for by only about 12,000 resident doctors. The figure underscored how thinly the workforce is stretched across the country.
The picture was reinforced by figures on consultants. The number of consultants today stands at roughly 6,000 to 7,000, the meeting heard, compared with 14,000 to 15,000 some 10 to 15 years ago. That decline was presented as clear evidence that the country is losing doctors, with the numbers described as staggering.
Behind these trends, the association pointed to issues of allowances, poor welfare packages and salary-related concerns. It cautioned that a failure to address these challenges could have far-reaching consequences for health care delivery across the country. The grievances tie the personal hardships of individual doctors to the wider capacity of the system to care for patients.
The meeting was held against a backdrop of concern about the sustainability of residency training and the broader health system. Representing the governor of Kano State at the opening ceremony was the Commissioner for Health, underscoring the official attention the issue has drawn. By spotlighting both the mental health of trainees and the shrinking workforce, the association sought to push the welfare of doctors up the national agenda before the shortfalls deepen further.