The Reproductive Health/Family Planning Programme Manager, Pathfinder International, Dr. Habeeb Salami, has said Nigeria has a deficit of about 248,572 doctors.
 
He said this was contrary to the World Health Organisation’s recommendation of one doctor to 600 patients, adding that available record showed that in Nigeria, it is one doctor to 3,500 patients, which suggests that Nigeria currently has about 51,428 doctors.
 

Salami spoke on Friday on the sidelines of a summit on the national task-shifting policy dissemination in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.
 
According to him, going by the WHO standards, Nigeria, with its population of about 180 million, should have at least 300,000 medical doctors.
 
With only about 51,428 doctors in the country, he said this implied a deficit of about 248,572 doctors, adding that this shortage posed a challenge to effective health care delivery in the country.
 
He said the task-shifting policy was aimed at seeing how to address the deficit of doctors and nurses as well as other health care providers by training the lower cadre to learn and provide some of the services provided by the higher cadre so as to save lives.
 
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