It is generally believed that Obstetrics and Gynaecology, OnG, have one of the highest number of candidates aspiring to specialise in that field of Medicine and Surgery. You can imagine my feeling when over the weekend I saw this statistics and I thought to myself;
‘Can we ever be salvaged from this?’
The report came from the President of the Society for Gynaecology and Obstetrics (SOGON) Prof Brian Adinma, who over the weekend, at the end of the 9th international congress and 49th Annual General Meeting of the society in Abuja said that;
“Nigeria has a poor doctor to patient ratio but it’s also on record that Nigeria has not been able to manage the number of doctors that are available. It has been revealed that there are so many house officers that could not even be absorbed for pre-registration housemanship. This is poor management of the workforce and the manpower need that we have.
Please join me lets do the maths!!!
With a population of about 170 million, and a total number of registered obstetricians and gynaecologist being about 1500: I can boldly say that one OnG doctor would have to serve, approximately, 110,000 women. The work load is so unimaginable. Worst still is that the Government cannot management the few ones let in the country!!!
I am, therefore, not surprised that quacks, fronting as OnG doctors, abound in the society filled with poverty, ignorance and disease…
I believe with the right information all will be well.
Happy New Month!!!
