Patients in Nigeria face waits of five to seven hours—or several days in rural areas—to see a doctor in public hospitals, according to findings by Daily Trust. The delays are linked to severe staff shortages and rising patient loads, with facilities in Abuja, Kano, Rivers and Lagos reporting overcrowding and overworked medical personnel. At Kubwa General Hospital in Abuja, patients arrive before 6 a.m. only to wait until noon or later, while some are turned away when doctors end consultations. Grace Folusho said she waited past 12 noon with her sick child despite arriving early, while Onyekachi John recounted returning a second day after being told doctors had closed.
The Nigerian Medical Association blames poor working conditions and low pay for a mass exit of doctors, with 18,627 leaving the country between 2015 and 2024. The doctor-to-population ratio is now 3.9 per 10,000, far below the World Health Organization's recommended 10 per 10,000. A doctor at Kubwa Hospital said physicians routinely see 25 to 30 patients daily, leading to fatigue. In Kano, patients reported waiting five hours or more, with some seeking care from patent medicine vendors after failing to see a doctor for three days.
Sani Rofiat, attending antenatal care at Kubwa, said the quality of care is good when consultation finally happens, but the wait remains exhausting. The Federal Ministry of Health said it has introduced a National Policy on Health Workforce Migration to manage the outflow, but patients continue to bear the burden of delays, lost income and worsening health conditions.
The Federal Ministry of Health promotes a policy to manage doctor migration while patients in Kubwa and Kano wait days to see a physician, exposing a gap between policy announcements and hospital realities. Nigerians like Grace Folusho and Onyekachi John lose workdays and endure repeated trips due to unmet staffing needs. The 18,627 doctors who left since 2015 are not being replaced fast enough to ease the burden on those still relying on public hospitals. For patients forced to seek relief from patent medicine vendors, the healthcare system is not just strained—it is functionally absent.
💡 NaijaBuzz is an AI-assisted news aggregator. This content is curated from third-party sources — NaijaBuzz is not the original publisher and is not responsible for the accuracy of source reporting. The NaijaBuzz Take is AI-assisted editorial opinion only, not established fact. All persons mentioned are presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction. NaijaBuzz does not endorse the views expressed in source articles.
