With a population of over three million people,
Zamfara State has only 46 qualified medical
doctors. Most public hospitals in the state are
groaning from dearth of medical doctors.
The Chairman Medical and Health Workers Union in
the state, Comrade Isyaku Sabo Tsafe said the
number was grossly inadequate and that the
shortage of medical doctors was much more
pronounced when meningitis epidemic hit the state
recently.


“Now in Zamfara State there are only 46 medical
doctors taking care of more than 3 million people.
Divide 3 million by 46, you would be surprised at
the number you will arrive at finally,” he said.
He said ‘mal distribution’ is another challenge
compounding that of shortage of doctors.
According to Comrade Tsafe, this is a situation
whereby a large number of the available doctors
are concentrated in one area, usually cities, to the
detriment of other parts of the state especially rural
areas.
He said: “For instance, currently, there are about 20
doctors in the state capital Gusau alone, the other
parts of the state share the remaining 26 doctors.
Even though something is being done to correct
the anomaly.”
Asked why medical doctors were rejecting rural
postings, Tsafe said that it might be connected to
the security situation in the state.

“No medical doctor will be willing to go to places like Dansadau district where the security situation is not favourable,” he said.
He said very soon, there would be Task Shift in the
state, “This is a situation where by some medical
doctors would be trained to do the tasks of
specialists. If there are no specialists doctors in
the state some of the available doctors would be
trained to do specialists duties,” he explained.
He said it has been approved by the National
Council on Health and would ensure that the gap
was bridged.

However, the state Commissioner for Health, Alhaji
Sulaiman Gummi debunked the claim that there
was dearth of medical doctors in the state.
“I can’t tell you the exact number of our medical
doctors now but I can assure you that each of our
medical facility has at least one to three doctors.
We are also sending them on training and our
remuneration and welfare packages are quite
motivating. Very soon some of them will return
from their consultancy trainings.
“We have concluded plans to recruit more qualified
medical doctors and nurses. We are doing all
humanly possible to retain the ones we have. We
have doctors even in the rural hospitals like the
ones in Magami, Moriki, Gummi and so on. So
those saying that doctors don’t accept rural
postings are wrong. Yes I agree that most of the
doctors are heavily concentrated in medical
facilities in the cities. But, this may not be
unconnected to high population density there,” he
added.


The commissioner explained that the state
government gives scholarships to students
studying medicine in Nigeria and other countries
such as China and India saying that payments to
such students were made promptly.
He said there were plans to recruit more nurses
especially those graduating from the School of
Nursing in the state adding that the recruitment
may include about 90% of the graduates.
“The nurses are not enough we did a
rationalization in the sector and we found out that
we don’t have enough of them. This is also
because we are losing some of the nurses and
doctors to NGOs,” he said.

The Chief Medical Director of the Federal Medical
Centre, Gusau, Dr Muhammad Kabir Anka in his
response to Daily Trust’s inquiry said, “Medical
doctors were not enough anywhere and they don’t
have much to complain about.”
He however declined comment on the exact
number of doctors in the medical facility.
However, the secretary, Association of Resident
Doctors, FMC Gusau chapter who gave his name
as Dr Nasir said there are about 70 resident
doctors and 15 consultants at the medical facility.
“We have talked to the management of the hospital
on possible recruitment or let me put it this way
replacement of more doctors and they are willing
to do so but for the paucity of funds,” he added.
Dr Nasir further explained that some medical
doctors have left the services of the hospitals
largely because of issues that had to do with post
graduate studies.
“Some doctors have left here owing to lack of
opportunities to go for post graduate studies and
we are taking steps to ensure that those who have
left are replaced immediately because we don’t
want the ones here to be over worked,” he added.

https://www.medicalworldnigeria.com/2017/05/46-doctors-care-for-3m-people-in-zamfara

cc: Sissy3 lalasticlala dominique

I am always scared of Meningitis, but what will i do now that i am being posted to Zamfara?
Any way I got a reliable means of reducing my risk of contacting the deadly diseases, Thanks to this article: http://www.nghealthtips.com/2017/04/unabated-meningitis-outbreakhere-is.html

Crazy Stats!

46 docs for 3million citizens....!!!

That is one doc per 65,217 people approximately.... chisos!!!


Zamfara is in "may day" medically.

This is sad and the security issues there are also a huge concern..... phewwwwww! what a mess....



The steps being taken by the Zamfara Government as explained in the article shaa.... well... let's see how things go. Really a precarious situation.