In a decisive transfer to handle the rising issues over the migration of well being professionals, the Nigerian authorities not too long ago authorised a complete “Nationwide Well being Workforce Migration Coverage”.
The strategic coverage, designed to curb well being employee migration, carries important weight. Its potential to mitigate the problem and convey a few substantial transformation in Nigeria’s healthcare system can’t be overstated.
The doc was a results of a sturdy and inclusive collaborative effort, spearheaded by the Federal Ministry of Well being and Social Welfare (FMOH) in partnership with the World Well being Group (WHO) and funded by the UK authorities’s Division of Well being and Social Care (DHSC). This underscores the shared accountability in addressing well being employee migration and the inclusivity of all stakeholders within the course of.
Introducing a Strategic Method to Well being Workforce Migration
Well being employee migration has been a persistent and important problem for Nigeria’s healthcare sector. The growing variety of expert professionals in search of alternatives overseas has led to Nigeria being one of many 55 international locations with a extreme scarcity of well being staff on the WHO Well being Workforce Help and Safeguard Checklist 2023.
This development compromises the supply of high quality healthcare providers and threatens the nation’s skill to realize health-related SDGs.
The coverage’s growth concerned many stakeholders in Nigeria’s well being sector and the diaspora. It aligns with the brand new Nationwide well being sector renewal initiative utilizing a sector-wide method (SWAP) with a concentrate on a number of key areas, together with bettering healthcare employee retention charges, selling moral recruitment practices, enhancing knowledge assortment for higher workforce planning, and investing in healthcare employee schooling and capability constructing.
By addressing these vital points, the coverage seeks to make sure that Nigeria can meet its well being workforce wants whereas contributing to the worldwide well being panorama.
To handle the results of Nigeria’s well being employee scarcity, the FMOH has carried out vital coverage interventions. These embrace growing the coaching quota of well being coaching establishments to spice up the manufacturing of well being staff and offering in-service coaching for 120,000 well being staff to boost the standard of care at PHCs.
This may increase the capability of accessible well being staff to cope with the present well being wants of the individuals and enhance the motivation of those well being staff; insurance policies just like the Nationwide Human Useful resource for Well being (HRH) coverage, activity shifting and sharing coverage and different pointers to make sure optimum use of accessible Human sources for well being. WHO helps the federal government’s efforts in strengthening proof era by the nationwide well being workforce registry, nationwide well being workforce account and well being workforce profile for improved decision-making.
A Path Ahead
In a previous interview, the Coordinating Minister of Well being and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammed Pate, famous, “This coverage represents our dedication to constructing a resilient well being system that may meet the wants of our individuals.
“This coverage is greater than only a response to the continuing exodus of healthcare professionals; it is a complete technique to handle, harness, and reverse well being employee migration. It envisions a thriving workforce that’s well-supported, adequately rewarded, and optimally utilised to satisfy the healthcare wants of all Nigerians” The Minister calls on “recipient international locations to implement a one-for-one (1:1) match—coaching one employee to interchange each publicly educated Nigerian employee they obtain”.
Talking on the significance of the brand new coverage, Dr Walter Kazadi Mulombo, WHO Consultant in Nigeria, applauded the federal government for embarking on the laudable coverage intervention to handle the uncoordinated migration of well being staff.
“The approval of this coverage is a big step in the direction of reaching the health-related SDGs in Nigeria. By addressing the foundation causes of well being employee migration and selling sustainable workforce planning, Nigeria goals to ship higher well being outcomes for its inhabitants. WHO is proud to have supported this initiative, which is able to profit Nigeria and contribute to world well being fairness.”
Attaining the SDGs: A Collaborative Effort
By means of funding from the UK Authorities, WHO supported proof era for coverage making and implementation in Nigeria.
Moreover, the UK authorities, by FCDO, will assist not less than 12 well being coaching establishments throughout six states with tools to supply high quality coaching for the elevated variety of college students in Well being coaching establishments in Nigeria.
WHO has additionally mobilized the three ranges of the group to supply technical assist to the federal government of Nigeria in implementing its well being sector strategic blueprint, together with points on HRH.
The WHO Well being Workforce Help and Safeguard Checklist encourages international locations to enter bilateral agreements knowledgeable by Well being Labour Market Evaluation (HLMA). WHO is offering technical assist to Nigeria to conduct HLMA and develop an implementation plan for the brand new coverage and pointers for bilateral agreements with vacation spot international locations of those well being staff. Lately, WHO has strengthened platforms for coordinating HRH interventions in Nigeria on the nationwide and sub-national ranges. WHO will proceed to assist evidence-generation, capability constructing and coverage interventions to boost the capability of the Nigerian well being workforce to realize common well being protection.