NARD wants better conditions to keep docs

It estimates between 20 and 30 percent of new doctors migrate, some immediately after housemanship, others before housemanship, according to Dr Paul Agwu, president of NARD at National Hospital, Abuja.“And they will keep leaving. There are better opportunities out there and this inter-professional rancour is minimised. And many will prefer to work in cities, because […]

It estimates between 20 and 30 percent of new doctors migrate, some immediately after housemanship, others before housemanship, according to Dr Paul Agwu, president of NARD at National Hospital, Abuja.
“And they will keep leaving. There are better opportunities out there and this inter-professional rancour is minimised. And many will prefer to work in cities, because states don’t implement salary scales,” he said at an orientation for new house officers at NHA.
Career path for doctors came under intense discourse with the entry of 30 new house officers fresh out of medical school and exit of 31 house officers to begin one-year national youth service.
The new house officers will rotate through four major medicine departments–surgery, paediatrics, internal and obstetrics and gynaecology–in three-month shifts.
Most will pick a speciality within the year of after, but the period is considered the most crucial in a doctor’s career, said Dr JAF Momoh, consultant chemical pathologist and chief medical director at NHA.