Medical doctors in Ondo State have called on the state government to address welfare concerns, lamenting that the condition of the health sector in the state is worsening.
The doctors, under the auspices of the Nigerian Medical Association and other affiliate bodies, said there was a need for urgent intervention by their employer—the government—to save the sector from total collapse.
Speaking with journalists in Akure, the state capital, on Tuesday, the state NMA Chairman, Dr Abel Alonge, said the sector had suffered years of neglect, leading to declining manpower, overstretched personnel, and worsening working conditions in government hospitals.
He disclosed that the number of doctors in the state had dropped by about 50 per cent over the past decade, despite a growing population, resulting in an alarming imbalance between healthcare demand and available personnel.
He said, “The number of doctors serving the state today has dropped by about half of what it was about 12 years ago. About 12 years ago, when the population of this state was also just about 3.5 million, today we have a population of about 5.8 million people, and the number of doctors has dropped by half of what it used to be then.
“They are also being underpaid. Not only that, there are infrastructural gaps. Many of the equipment we use today in many healthcare facilities have been in use for more than 10 years, some 15, 20 years, and there are some health facilities that do not even have the required equipment to meet the health needs of the people.
“Today, the doctor-to-population ratio in the state is about 1 to 6,200 people, which falls grossly short of the WHO standard of 1 doctor to 600 people. Instead of 1 to 600, we have 1 to 6,200. That is the worst in the entire South-West.”
Due to the inadequacy of doctors, he said many general hospitals in the state currently operate with either one doctor or none at all, forcing the few available medical personnel to work under extreme pressure without rest or adequate support.
Faulting the recent recruitment of doctors by the state government, Alonge disclosed that those employed included retired doctors and house officers in training, whom he said could not adequately fill the existing manpower gap.
“The recent employment of doctors announced in the daily news, where the government employed 30 doctors, did not reflect regular doctors. These were retired doctors brought back to service, and house officers who are still in training. Those ones are not the doctors we are looking at,” he declared.
The NMA chairman warned that if the government fails to address the crisis in the state’s health sector, the association would not hesitate to embark on industrial action, stressing that the situation has reached a critical breaking point.
In his remarks, the Chairman of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria, Ondo State Government Hospitals Chapter, Dr Stephen Adewole, described Ondo State as the lowest-paying state for healthcare workers in the South-West.
According to him, poor remuneration and unfavourable working conditions had triggered a sustained exodus of doctors from the state public service to neighbouring states such as Lagos, Ogun, Ekiti, and Osun.
He noted that the trend, which previously involved migration abroad, had shifted to internal movement within Nigeria, worsening the staffing crisis in Ondo hospitals.
Similarly, the President of the Association of Resident Doctors in Ondo State, Dr Kehinde Olagbe, expressed disappointment over what he described as the government’s silence and lack of decisive action on their demands.
He said doctors continued to work under extremely difficult conditions, describing the situation as overworked, underpaid, and unsafe, while warning that continued neglect poses a serious threat to healthcare delivery.
The health professionals jointly demanded immediate implementation of the federal circular with arrears, improved welfare packages, urgent recruitment of doctors, and rehabilitation of health infrastructure across the state.
They warned that failure to address the issues within a fresh seven-day ultimatum, following earlier 14-day and 21-day notices, could force them into industrial action that may further disrupt healthcare services in Ondo State.
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