Lagos State is facing a severe healthcare workforce crisis, with the state needing about 40,000 additional doctors and another 40,000 nurses to adequately cater for its rapidly growing population.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu raised the alarm on Thursday, saying the shortage of medical personnel and inadequate funding were the two biggest challenges confronting the state’s health sector.
Speaking at the opening of the second Eko Health Convention at the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, Sanwo-Olu said the state currently had only about 7,000 doctors, leaving a massive gap in manpower.
According to him, the situation had placed an enormous burden on the available doctors, with each doctor effectively carrying the workload of several others.
“Lagos needs about 40,000 doctors to serve this population properly. We have about 7,000. We need roughly 40,000 more nurses. Every doctor in Lagos today is, in effect, doing the work of 10,” the governor said.
Sanwo-Olu also disclosed that the state’s health sector requires at least N100bn above its current budgetary provision to adequately meet the healthcare needs of its growing population.
He described the funding gap as another major threat to the sustainability of healthcare delivery in the state.
“The second gap is money. There is a shortfall of at least N100bn between what our health budget provides and what this system genuinely requires,” he said.
The governor further warned that the decline in international donor funding could worsen the situation, particularly in the area of disease control.
He said donor financing, which had supported disease-control programmes in Nigeria for about two decades, was shrinking sharply and was unlikely to return to its previous level.
But Sanwo-Olu said his administration was taking steps to close the manpower gap through aggressive recruitment, improved welfare packages and better working conditions for health workers.
He disclosed that clinical recruitment had recently been opened across all 29 secondary healthcare facilities in the state.
“We have recruited aggressively, and last month opened clinical recruitment across all twenty-nine of our secondary facilities,” he said.
The governor also said the government had constructed accommodation for health workers and was improving their working conditions in a bid to discourage migration and encourage medical professionals to return to Lagos.
“We are improving conditions to slow the departures and, increasingly, to attract colleagues back,” he added.
Sanwo-Olu also revealed plans to establish a University of Medicine and Health Sciences as part of the long-term strategy to strengthen the state’s medical workforce.
The governor said the government was determined to build a healthcare system capable of serving Lagos beyond the lifespan of his administration.
“We have kept our promises. Now we are building the systems that will keep them long after us,” he said.
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