On Saturday, Dr. Tunji Alausa, the Minister of State for Health, announced that the Federal Government had ordered health professionals who travel overseas in search of better opportunities to resign their positions before leaving on such trips. According to Alausa, this practice of health professionals leaving for other countries in search of better opportunities after requesting a leave of absence is no longer acceptable.
The minister made this claim on Saturday while on a visit to the Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital in Aro, Abeokuta, Ogun State. He said that the President believed that the people were the nation’s greatest asset and that he had not only promised but also taken proactive steps to ensure that the health sector was in good condition to protect the citizens’ health.
The minister stated that President Bola Tinubu’s executive order, which forbade health professionals from taking leaves of absence, was one of the many harsh measures taken to address the problem of brain drain, often known as “Japa Syndrome,” which is plaguing the country’s health sector.
This comes at the same time that Alausa disclosed that the FG has started to produce workers for the health sector, increasing the number of nurses enrolled annually from 28,000 to 68,000 by the end of this year.
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Alausa addressed the issue of a lack of workers in all FG-owned healthcare facilities, saying, “The President has ordered massive production of labour so that when people go, there will always be replacement. The government is not unmindful of the Japa effect on our manpower in the health sector.”
“It is against this background that we are working intensely on the enrolment of our nurses. What used to be 28,000 is now 68,000 and our intention is to take it to 120,000 by the end of the year, so there will always be abundant skilled manpower to take over from those leaving the job.
“We have equally doubled our enrolment for doctors, dentistry, pharmacists among others
“Again, we didn’t say anyone who wants to move or japa to the UK or Australia to take up appointments there should not go, it is a free world.”
“But you cannot eat your cake and have it,” the minister went on. The Presidential executive order, which has been distributed to all Chief Medical Directors of Federal Government-owned health institutions, states that if you are leaving, you should just quit your posts with the Federal Government rather than filing for a leave of absence.
The issue with the leave of absence is that, while this person is working and earning money in the UK or Australia, his name is still included on the government’s payroll. This makes it challenging to replace him since, despite his departure, he is still seen as a government employee.
“So, to solve this problem, the President has directed that health workers going abroad to work should just resign their appointments and not apply for leave of absence. This way, you won’t be blocking others who want to work and of course piling burdens for your colleagues that you left behind.”
Alausa responded to some of the hospital’s requests for more financing, the construction of infrastructure, and other social programmes by saying that the ministry will stop at nothing to enhance the state of the nation’s health system.
