Lagos State faces a shortage of about 40,000 doctors and an equal number of nurses, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said Thursday, warning that the health sector also needs at least ₦100 billion in additional funding.
Sanwo-Olu spoke at the opening of the second Eko Health Convention at the Oriental Hotel in Victoria Island, Lagos.
He identified shortages of health workers and funding as the two biggest challenges facing the state's health system.
“Lagos needs about 40,000 doctors to serve this population properly.
"We have about 7,000.
"We need roughly 40,000 more nurses.
"Every doctor in Lagos today is, in effect, doing the work of 10,” he said.
The governor said there was also a gap of at least ₦100 billion between the state's health budget and what the system requires.
“Donor financing, which supported much of our disease control for two decades, is contracting sharply and will not return in its old form,” Sanwo-Olu said.
He said the state had begun tackling the shortage through increased recruitment, better welfare packages and plans to establish a University of Medicine and Health Sciences.
“We have recruited aggressively, and last month opened clinical recruitment across all twenty-nine of our secondary facilities,” he said.
“We have built accommodation for health workers.
"We are improving conditions to slow the departures and, increasingly, to attract colleagues back.”
Sanwo-Olu also said more than 1.5 million residents were enrolled in the state's Ilera Eko health insurance scheme as of May, with 1,502,994 people registered.
More than half of those enrolled were women, he said.
He added that the state was using digital technology to improve medical records, disease monitoring and healthcare planning.
“We have kept our promises.
"Now we are building the systems that will keep them long after us,” Sanwo-Olu said.
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