Medical Profession is Service to Humanity, MDCN Tells Doctors

*Urges medical graduates against relocating abroad

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) has reminded doctors in Nigeria that medical practice is a service to humanity, hence the need for them to always think of how to contribute to the Nigerian medical system.
The Registrar of the council, Dr Tajudeen Sanusi, disclosed this during the maiden induction and oath-taking ceremony of the pioneer set of students of PAMO University of Medical Sciences, Port Harcourt, Rivers State into the medical profession.

A total of 40 medical graduates of the institution were inducted into the medical profession by the council after taking their Hippocratic Oath.
Sanusi, who also warned the newly-inducted medical doctors against running away from the country to practice abroad, advised the inductees to strictly adhere to the ethics of the medical profession.

He also admonished the new doctors against leaving the country without doing their house-manship.
While cautioning the new doctors to shun strike, Sanusi urged them to shun vices and negligence that would bring the medical profession into disrepute.
The Registrar, who commended the university for maintaining one of the best standards in the training of medical practitioners in the country, said he cannot recollect when a university graduated medical students in a record time of six years.
He noted that at a time when public universities were graduating medical students after 10 to 13 years of training, PAMO University of Medical Sciences did its training within the recommended six years.

Sanusi urged other schools to go to the university and copy their model and curriculum and emulate them.
He said: “It is true; we owe the society that responsibility of keeping them in good health, not minding whether you are better paid or not. That’s why I said today’s ceremony is a call to service and that service is service to humanity.

“Having said that, there’s this syndrome of ‘Japa’. I’ll tell you the truth; initially, it might look rosy, but in the long run, it’s usually not profitable. Some of us have had the opportunity of having some of our training abroad, but let me tell you the truth, there’s no place like home.
“No problem if you want to ‘japa’, but if you must go, go well, make sure you do what is right before you go. Make sure you complete your housemanship before you leave and make sure you upgrade your career if you get over there.”

“Don’t you think you should give something back to this country? Yes, we don’t have enough doctors, but the ones we have, we should be able to utilise them to the benefit of society. In the Western world, their children are no longer going to school, and they don’t even have the money to train, that’s why they are looking up to the third world to poach, let us be patriotic and think of what we can give to this system.”

“Today’s induction is a call to service. You owe your parents and the government a duty of care. Shun strike actions. Discharge to duties well. If you think you can commit an offence and run to another jurisdiction and will not be detected, you have lied. We will fish you out because we communicate with ourselves.”
In his remarks, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Michael Diejomaoh, said with the training the new medical doctors received from PAMO University, he has no doubt that they will make Rivers and Nigeria proud anywhere they find themselves.

He commended the entire management of the school for the efforts put into training the students of the institution.
The Pro-Chancellor of the school and former governor of Rivers State, Dr. Peter Odili, urged the medical doctors to distinguish themselves anywhere they find themselves.
Odili equally said with the training they received, they would excel and urged them to always let their good conduct and job give them away as doctors who received the best training.

The guest lecturer at the occasion and Professor of Medicine and Consultant Gastroenterologist, Bayero University, Kano and Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital Kano, Prof. Musa Muhammed Borodo, decried the shortage of medical practitioners in the country, disclosing that Nigeria needs at least 300,000 additional qualified doctors to meet the standard set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Borodo said in Nigeria there were a total of 30,000 medical practitioners to serve the over 230 million population of the country giving a doctor/population ratio of 1:7,700. This, he said, was far short of the recommendation of the WHO of a 1:1000 ratio for developing countries.
 While commending PAMO University for its intervention in medical education, the professor also called on private proprietors of medical schools to emulate the institution.

He stressed the need for responsible leadership, and professionalism from stakeholders of medical training for enhanced quality of medical graduates.
 To improve student motivation in learning, Prof. Borodo recommended the introduction of an improved student selection process to undergraduate medical training positions using additional relevant eligibility criteria, as is done elsewhere, rather than relying on the current use of exam scores alone.