Medical students should sign five-year bond to tame medical exodus – VC

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Medical Sciences (UNIMED), Ondo, Prof. Adesegun Fatusi, has advised Nigerian government that medical students in government-owned institutions be made to sign a bond to serve the country over a period of five years before they can go abroad after graduation.

Fatusi made the advice on the sideline of the six-day (7th) Scientific Conference and Annual General Meeting of the Association of Clinical and Academic Physiotherapists of Nigeria (ACAPN) which ends on Oct. 21 at UNIMED.

He said that the Nigerian government should benefit immensely from medical personnel trained with government resources.

“I believe firmly that anyone who has gone to government school under government sponsorship must be bonded to serve the country for five years before he/she goes and I have absolutely no apology for that.

“As a university administrator, we have staff that go abroad from time to time to study. All of them sign bonds that when they come back, they will serve for a number of years.

“But instead of serving for a number of years, they could buy back the years by refunding the money used in training them.

“So, it’s a law of supply and demand. And the World Health Organisation (WHO) has told us that there are about 15 million deficit of health workers in the world.

“So, what the developed world continues to do is to steal from us. We need to be wise and open more opportunities to train more students. If you do that and some go away, the percentage that will remain is likely to be higher,” he said.

The VC asked government to also cater for health workers by giving them necessary welfare packages that would make their work convenient and reduce stress facing them on daily basis.

Speaking on the conference, Fatusi said that the university was glad to have hosted the conference despite being a young university.

“I feel very good. The association constitutes a critical group of academia within health workers and for them to have come here for the conference means they recognize what we are doing. And we are glad we can host them,” he sad.

The theme of the conference is: “Recent Advancements in Movement Disorders”, with a sub-theme of: “Movement Disorders in Parkinson and other Neurological Conditions.”