At least five wards have been closed down at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba on account of health workers’ shortage.
Consequently, not less than 150 beds in the affected wards have become unoccupied despite the huge patients’ traffic in the hospital.
The circumstances, which sprang from the growing trend of Nigerian skilled workers relocating abroad in search of greener pastures, was brought to light by House of Representatives Committee on Health.
The latter made the discovery following an oversight visit to the teaching hospital.
Speaking to newsmen about the situation, the Committee Chairman Dr. Amos Magaji said, “We saw significant problems here. Right now, there are about five wards in LUTH, totalling about 150 beds that have been shut down because there are no nurses and doctors to work in those wards. And these are a result of the ‘japa’ syndrome we are having.
“As a committee, we will work together with the Federal Government and also with the teaching hospital to find a way out of these national embarrassments that have befallen this country.
“It’s not something that can be fixed in one day, but nevertheless, we are going to be approaching it piecemeal. We are going to do what we can do immediately and what we can do long-term approach to it.
“So, by the grace of God, some of the issues of the ‘japa’, we are actually looking at how to solve this problem, starting even from the enrollment in universities, and then how house officers are employed, and then of course, the residency programme.”
