Health workers seeking jobs abroad have been directed by the federal government to resign before leaving the country.
Minister of State for Health, Tunji Alausa, who announced the executive order during a visit to the Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Aro, Abeokuta, Ogun state, on Saturday, March 9, said the era of health workers exiting the country after applying for a leave of absence is no longer acceptable.
The Minister also said they are training more health workers to address the shortage of personnel in the sector.
Alausa said; “You cannot eat your cake and have it. If you are going, just resign your appointment with the Federal Government rather than applying for a leave of absence. That is the presidential executive order that has been communicated to all the Chief Medical Directors of Federal Government-owned health facilities to implement.
“The problem with the leave of absence is that such a fellow is out there in the UK or Australia working, making money but his name still appears on the payment roll of the government and so to replace him is difficult because he is still being considered as a staff whereas he has left the country.
“So, to solve this problem, the President has directed that health workers going abroad to work should just resign their appointments and not apply for leave of absence. This way, you won’t be blocking others who want to work and of course piling burdens for your colleagues that you left behind.
“The government is not unmindful of the ‘Japa’ effect on our manpower in the health sector and the President has ordered for massive production of manpower such that when people go, there will always be replacement.
“It is against this background that we are working intensely on the enrolment of our nurses. What used to be 28,000 is now 68,000, and our intention is to take it to 120,000 by the end of the year, so there will always be abundant skilled manpower to take over from those leaving the job.”
