Female Doctors Also Joining Mass Migration Abroad—MWAN Lagos President
The President of the Medical Women Association of Nigeria (MWAN), Lagos chapter, Dr. Funmi Ige, has highlighted the increasing emigration of female doctors, emphasizing that family dynamics are no longer a major hindrance to their relocation.
In an exclusive interview with PUNCH Healthwise, Dr. Ige noted that while more male doctors are leaving due to their higher numbers in the profession, female doctors are also migrating in significant numbers, often alongside their families.
She explained that many female doctors now arrange their relocation in a way that accommodates their spouses and children, either moving first or following their husbands who have already emigrated.
The ongoing brain drain, she warned, is putting immense pressure on the country’s healthcare workforce, leaving the remaining doctors overworked and burned out. Nigeria has already lost between 15,000 and 16,000 doctors in the last five years, with the country’s doctor-to-patient ratio now at **1:10,000**, far below the **WHO** recommendation of **1:6,000.
Dr. Ige urged the government to take urgent steps to make the medical profession more attractive by improving working conditions and expanding medical training institutions to retain doctors.
She also pointed out that younger doctors no longer see the profession as lucrative, prioritizing financial stability and quality of life abroad over staying back to work in Nigeria’s struggling healthcare system.
With continued mass emigration, she warned that Nigeria may face a severe shortage of healthcare professionals, worsening the already critical state of the health sector.
