‘ How to end medical tourism, brain drain’

TO address the challenges of brain drain and the exodus of medical practitioners, a neurosurgeon at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, ( UNN), Prof. Enoch Uche, has tasked the Federal Government to equip hospitals with necessary facilities that would enhance the performance of doctors and other healthcare workers.

He also stressed the need for a durable welfare scheme for medical personnel to motivate them and halt the japa syndrome. Delivering the 198th inaugural lecture of the university, titled: ‘ Brain surgery in the global age, navigating the barriers of care to habituate survival in the final frontiers, footmarks of a neurosurgeon,’ Uche said the competence of Nigerian doctors globally was not in doubt, but lamented that the challenge had been lack of equipment to perform their duties amid zero motivation.

The Abia State- born surgeon advised Nigerians, who have had headaches for about a month to seek medical attention, stressing that prolonged headache is one of the symptoms of brain tumour.

Uche also emphasised the need for the spread of the national health insurance scheme to enable more Nigerians to have access to healthcare.

The Vice- Chancellor, Prof. Charles Igwe, re- affirmed the commitment of the institution to invest in research, and described the inaugural lecture series started in 1976, as a harvest of intellectual prowess. Represented by the Deputy Vice- Chancellor, Academic, Prof. Johnson Urama, the vice- chancellor noted that the lecture had stimulated research among the institution’s academic staff.