Well from all indications, the ratio has improved. Now doctors have less patients, unlike when we were having a doctor see quite a large number of patients. What we had in the past was a doctor to 3,000 patients in the country which is far above the WHO recommended figure of one doctor to about 500 patients.  

But you know very well that even these young doctors that we graduate nowadays, once they finish their houseman-ship, youth service, they start looking for greener pastures. Its either they want to look for where they can get more money or they want to enroll into specialization. So you find quite a large number of them leaving this country, either looking for greener pastures or for further training.

One cannot at any given time say that the doctor ratio has improved but we are happy that we have been able to reduce that ratio closer to what WHO has recommended. Now, we have one doctor to less than 3,000 patients. I cannot give you the exact figure.

 As a council, how would you curb medical tourism?

The government in the past and up till now is improving facilities in our tertiary hospitals. Let me be frank with you, these are issues which border on policies. If government should make a policy that whoever you are, you must patronize Nigerian tertiary hospital as a last resort, it will stop. People doing it are doing so because they feel they have money so they can afford health services outside the country. It’s not actually that these people going on medical tourism are referred. But when you take a statistics of people going on medical tourism, you’ll find that a greater percentage is government sponsored.

So to bring it to the barest minimum, I think the government has to be up and doing and set a policy that our tertiary health institutions must be exhausted before that trip is made. So we have to make our referral system very functional and government has to be discretionary in approving medical trips for officials.

 Any plans to bring your doctors up to date with modern day technology and innovation?

We have this continuous professional development (CPD) in place. No doctor or practitioner will get his license for the next year until he acquires a minimum of 20 credit units by way of updating his knowledge through attending conferences, workshops, seminars, even ground rounds in specialized centres.

This helps doctors update themselves in their field of practice and also update their knowledge in the facilities and equipment they use in their field of specialization. In the past, when we came up with the issue of CPD in 2008 compared to now, I think there is  greater response to the attainment of the credit unit through the CPD. By so doing, our doctors will update themselves in the field of practice and also in the knowledge of those equipment they use in those fields.

 Is the MDCN’s tribunal functional now?

Unfortunately, for the tribunal to sit, there has to be a chairman of the council. You know the boards of parastatals were dissolved in October 2011 and up till now, we don’t have a council in place. It’s only when you have a council in place, with the chairman that the tribunal will function. So in the absence of a council chairman, it’s like you have a court but there’s no judge to sit in that court. But very soon, I think the council will be inaugurated. The council is already composed, it’s left for His Excellency, President Goodluck Jonathan to appoint a chairman and once that is done, the tribunal will swing into action. Currently, we have cases that have been concluded by the investigative panel.

We have the investigative panel still investigating complaints against doctors, that aspect of our disciplinary arm of our professional discipline is functional. Any complaints we get against a doctor is handled by that particular committee in the investigative panel and once they conclude, the cases are there waiting for the tribunal to come on board. As soon as a chairman is appointed, a week or two after, the tribunal will swing into action.

 Don’t you think the process of getting justice is too long and that is why many people have lost faith in reporting doctors for misdemeanours?

Well, it’s our system in Nigeria generally. Even when you go to a regular court, you have a simple case that somebody may look at as an ordinary thing but that case may drag for years. If you are trying somebody on professional issues, competences or ethical issues, especially brought against a doctor, proper investigation has to be done and the suspect has to be  given fair hearing to defend himself. You know human beings are not perfect. It’s only after examining and cross examining that you arrive at whether the doctor should be sanctioned or the doctor should be exonerated. And this can be only through fair hearing. There is no way a case will be brought and it will be dismissed.

 It’s not done that way even in the regular court. Unfortunately, if you compare what is happening in the UK, such disciplinary bodies in general medical council are called fitness to practice panel or committees. Such committees are composed of some professional members and some are even lay members. You have people who are specially trained to try such cases either educationist or even lawyers.

So you find  people who do not even belong to that profession, and  in so doing, you find that even at the shortest period of time, they try those cases and they dispense with them. But one thing that is contributing to that is the non dissolution of the council. Over there, you don’t have government interfering in the function of these regulatory bodies but here government is interfering every now and then; interfering in the sense that maybe a board or a council that is supposed to have tenure of four years, after a year or two, it is dissolved by the government. Most times, they make reference to some sections of the constitution of the country. This is most unfortunate. As long as the council continues to be dissolved, we will continue to have cases being delayed.

 Apart from Igbinedion University, are there other health institutions not being accredited?

In 2010, when we had about 11 medical schools sanctioned, when you sanction, you give a period for moratorium for that medical school to correct or upgrade, those ones upgraded. Even Igbinedion had rectified those mistakes and their accreditation was restored until this year when there were gross violations of this council’s deadlines and regulations and the institution had to be revisited again. It was during the course of the visitation that the team found that the institution did not actually correct those things that they were asked to correct.

As long as medical training institutions continue to violate the minimum standard set up by the council, the council will not hesitate to sanction them.

For now its Igbinedion, maybe tomorrow we may get complaints against another medical school somewhere in the country and once we do, we set up the necessary machinery to visit the school and if they are found wanting, sanction will be meted out on the school.

 Now that you are back from National Institute  for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), and your tenure renewed for another four years, any vision for the future?

Yes, after my training at NIPSS, I have brought new experience. We recently went on retreat with the whole management. There we drew up a new strategy on how to move the council forward for the next four years. The functionalities of the council are going to be computerized during the next four years.

Wherever a doctor is, he doesn’t need to come here, he could access our web, log in and complete his registration and also get a feedback. We also have plans to expand the offices of the council. Currently, we have three zonal offices- Lagos, Kaduna and Enugu but in the next one to two years, we intend to have additional offices in two other geo-political zones-North-East and South-South , in Abuja and other surrounding state.

We are looking at the issue of medical education, so that at the point of graduation, the medical school can just register their new doctors online without bringing heavy and voluminous documents to the secretariat.

We also intend to expand our secretariat, including building a conference centre. These are part of the development activities we intend to carry out in the next four years.