A bill to prevent medical doctors and dental practitioners from being granted full license until they have worked for a minimum of five years has passed second reading in the House of Representatives.
The bill is sponsored by Lagos lawyer Ganiu Johnson and seeks to mandate any Nigerian trained medical or dental practitioner to acquire not less than five years experience on the job before
being certified to be on their own.
Though some members rose against the bill describing it as a form of slavery, the sponsor insists it will curb brain drain
and make quality health services available to Nigerians.
Reacting to this development, Medical Doctor, Chinasa Amadi said the bill has come with mixed feeling and there a lot of questions that needs answers to.
She noted that it is also a situation of addressing the symptom of a disease instead of addressing the cost of the disease.
The medical practitioner said the cause of the brain drain is what needs to be addressed and not taking care of symptoms of a condition when the cause is still there.
“Once the cause is still there, the problem still exist.
“There needs to be a reform in the health sector that is what we need and that is what will now stop or maybe abate or
reduce the brain drain that comes.
Speaking further, Chinasa Amadi said it is important to note that Doctors cannot practice unsupervised without a full license.
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