President of the Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria, Dr Terfa Kene, says the country lacks sufficient public health physicians due to an underlying shortage of medical doctors nationwide.
Kene, who disclosed this in an interview on Tuesday in Abuja, said the shortage reflects broader workforce challenges affecting healthcare delivery across Nigeria.
According to him, the deficit of medical professionals continues to limit the country’s capacity to produce the specialists required for effective public health practice.
He explained that public health physicians operate at the community level, working across sectors to deliver essential health services, strengthen preventive care, and improve health outcomes.
“So, you see, it’s a sequence. You have to be a medical doctor before you become a public health physician. We don’t have enough doctors.
“Now, remember that public health physicians are not just operators or hunters. We are community physicians who work at the level of the community,” Kene said.
He noted that members of the association cut across academia, local governments, states, federal institutions and non-governmental organisations, reflecting the wide scope of public health practice.
“In fact, to express the membership of our association, we have people who are in universities and academia.
“We have people who work at the local government level as medical officers of health. They also work at the state level,” Kene said.
He added that inadequate personnel at the local level had led to increased reliance on task shifting, with community health workers filling gaps created by the shortage of medical officers of health.
Kene said Nigeria was not producing enough public health physicians, while migration continued to weaken the available workforce as professionals seek better opportunities abroad.
“So, we don’t have enough of them. That is why you now see task shifting, where you have community health officers and community health extension workers.
“We are not producing enough. If we are not producing enough, then we cannot meet demand all the time. There is a pipeline, but as we are producing, there is also leakage.
“That leakage is consistent because the world has become a global village. People are attracted to where they perceive they will get better opportunities,” he said.
Kene said the exact number of public health physicians in Nigeria remains unclear due to registration gaps and varying qualifications, limiting accurate workforce data for planning and policy.
He, however, noted that the association has over 3,000 registered members, though the figure does not represent the total number of practitioners in the country.
“This still brings me to how many public health physicians we have in Nigeria. I don’t have that record, but we have more than 3,000 members registered with the association,” Kene said.
On their contributions, he said public health physicians play critical roles in policy development, implementation and epidemic response at all levels of governance.
“In fact, there’s no way in this country that you will set up an epidemic response without involving public health physicians,” Kene said.
He added that the association was pursuing innovation-driven initiatives to improve service delivery, strengthen collaboration and enhance efficiency in the public health sector.
Kene also disclosed plans to build a national secretariat and estate to improve members’ welfare and enhance professional coordination.
He said the project would support telemedicine services to improve access to healthcare, particularly in underserved and hard-to-reach areas.
“We can deploy telemedicine devices in such locations, and our doctors can be available for consultation at no cost or minimal operational cost,” Kene said.
He appealed to Nigerians and organisations to support the initiative through funding or material contributions to ensure its completion and long-term impact on healthcare delivery.
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