Doctors, Govt must synergize to tackle japa syndrome in Nigeria – Etop

Lovina Anthony, Akwa Ibom

A retired medical surgeon in Akwa Ibom State, Dr. Albert Ekop has called on doctors and governments at various levels to play a role to ensure that migration of medical doctors to overseas in search of greener pastures is averted.

Ekop who spoke to newsmen shortly after the launch of his book titled, “The Tailor” the 88 year old doctor, said that young doctors should go back to the curriculum that healthcare is a social service not economic service.

He noted that government on its part should understand that doctors deserve adequate remuneration to encourage them since everyone goes to the same market.

“I think the first step will be the curriculum of training of medical students, we should go back to what we used to learn that health care is a social service not an economic service. If we say this to the minds of these young people, the rat race for greener pastures will be reduced.

“Government too should be told that people who sacrifice for the health of individuals souls should be compensated,not when they complain you just dismissed them with the wave of the hand. They are human beings, they buy from the same market as you are buying. Government should take a second look at the remuneration of medical doctors” he stated

He further added that the rat race for greener pastures among young Nigerian doctors would be reduced if these are put in place.

In a forward to the book, a former commissioner of health, Dr Dominic Ukpong, said that the father of the author was a strict disciplinarian who was determined to educate his children even on loan, despite dissuasion from friends.

Ukpong said it was out of that desperation that he advised young Ekop to go and do tailoring, in the interim, a very “humble and challenging instruction to an intelligent, ambitious, budding academic star”

He added that the call for tailoring made a significant impact on the Young Ekpo hence the title of the book” The Tailor”