The Chief Medical Director of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu State, Prof. Obinna Onodugo, has rated Nigeria’s medical doctors among the best in the world.
Speaking at a symposium organised by the Enugu branch of the Association of Catholic Medical Doctors in Enugu, yesterday, Onodugo said Nigerians who travel abroad for medicare do so because of better facilities, not because of the incompetence of Nigerian doctors and health personnel.
He said his survey on the performance of medical doctors globally revealed that Nigerians are among the best “as healthcare providers in America, Europe, South America, Asia and other parts of Africa continue to recruit them in large numbers”.
He, however, identified poor wages, inadequate facilities and low incentives as some of the major problems facing healthcare personnel in the country, stressing that an increased budget allocation to the health sector is overdue.
While warning doctors against greed, he noted: “We have a moral responsibility to practice the profession as Catholics in accordance with God’s doctrines.”
Also speaking, the Medical Director of the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu, Dr. Cajetan Nwadinigwe, regretted that the fortunes of doctors have dwindled in recent times, urging them to brace up to face current challenges. He further advised doctors, especially younger ones, to invest in the property and avoid luxury items like cars.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Association, Prof. Bede Chidozie Ibe, said one of the objectives that informed the theme of the symposium was bringing entrepreneurship to the purview of Nigerian doctors. It is important to strengthen the level of entrepreneurial education of the Nigerian doctor, he explained.
The symposium was themed, ‘Financial Planning: Exploring Alternative Sources of Income’.
Ibe, a former Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus added: “We want to increase the capacity of the doctor to see the length and breadth of opportunities that exist within the larger economy that may bring about professional as well as financial reward and hopefully bring about the much-desired satisfaction in doctors’ life.”
A paper on financial planning by Sir Chijioke Mbagwu was delivered by Chukwu Rosemary while another on ‘The doctor as a sole entrepreneur’, was presented by Provost of the College of Medicine, Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), Prof. Frank Ezugwu, as well as Obinna Madukwe, whose lecture focused on stress-free retirement.
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