Ali Pate Gives Reason For Shortage Of Doctors, Nurses, Other Front-line Medical Workers In Nigeria

Health Minister, Mohammad Ali Pate has given reason for the shortage of front-line healthcare workers across the country.

Pate stated on Channels TV Sunrise Daily on Wednesday that the shortage of healthcare staff is a global concern and is not exclusive to Nigeria. Pate disclosed that there is almost an 18 million health workers’ shortage across the world.

He noted that several Western nations were poaching healthcare workers from other countries to care for their aging population.

“This is not a Nigerian issue alone, globally there is almost an 18 million healthworkers shortage in the world, it is a global phenomenon because many of the western countries are aging and require health workers to help serve their needs and therefore are extracting the health workforce from many countries not only Nigeria. So healthworker migration is not just a Nigerian phenomenon it is also a global phenomenon and we are trying to deal with it in our own context just as other countries are also dealing with it in their own context,” Pate said.

Naija News reports that his remark came amid widespread belief that Nigerian healthcare personnel were fleeing the country due to the low pay associated with working as a healthcare expert in the country.