It feels like there is no reward… It naturally kills one’s passion…

Medical doctors in private hospitals across Abuja have raised concerns over poor remuneration and unfavourable working conditions.

While speaking with FIJ, the doctors lamented that despite their critical role in patient care, often at the expense of their well-being, many private hospitals reward them with meagre salaries and little to no extra benefits.

FIJ gathered that many were fully licensed medical practitioners who earned below N200,000 monthly with shifts stretching up to 48 hours without adequate rest or breaks.

“The current compensation packages for medical officers in Abuja are woefully inadequate. They fail to provide even the most basic benefits,” one doctor, who did not want to be named, told FIJ.

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“Many hospitals pay doctors N110,000 to N120,000 per month after years of training,” he said.

“Meanwhile, government hospitals pay medical officers undergoing internships over N200,000. Private hospitals should ideally pay more, but the reverse is the case.”

Some doctors said private hospitals also used them for both medical and non-medical duties in a bid to cut costs. This means that alongside patient care, some of them have to handle administrative tasks. Then, burnout and exhaustion follow.

“A lot of doctors are used for other non-medical purposes all because some hospitals are trying to do what we call lean management. Instead of them to recruit support staff, they assign doctors to do both medical and administrative work,” the Abuja doctor added.

Beyond poor pay, many hospitals do not provide accommodation. This then forces doctors to scramble out of the meagre income on housing and transportation.

FIJ understands that these doctors belong to associations such as the Young Doctors Forum (YDF) and the Association of Nigerian Private Medical Practitioners (ANPMP) which have engineered meetings to address concerns about low pay.

In 2023, memos were sent out to some hospitals to review their salaries, but no step has been taken to improve the welfare of doctors there. A memo obtained by FIJ reveals that the YDF set a N300,000 benchmark as the expected monthly salary for medical officers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

However, beyond what one of the affected doctors described as “political reassurances”, no positive change has taken place since 2023.

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The doctors drafted a ‘No Work Area’ list when the hospitals were unyielding. It contains names of hospitals paying medical officers less than the N300,000 salary benchmark.

Sources revealed that the situation amid the economic hardship in the country has even forced many of them to take extreme measures.

Some borrow money to sustain themselves while others are planning to leave the country for high-income offers. Some others are willing to leave their medical profession for better opportunities.

This was how one of the doctors described the situation: “When you consider the level of experience, level of training and many other factors, the value system in the medical profession has not been encouraging, and it has a ripple effect.

“A lot of doctors are unwilling to practice. When doctors show this unwillingness, it also means that the morale is low. We expect private facilities to be more proactive, to be more efficient, to also be able to fill up some of the gaps we find in government facilities. But then government hospitals are still doing better than private ones, which is absurd.

“We have two groups of doctors. The first group has decided to work in a private hospital no matter how badly they’ve been treated. And at the end of the month, they don’t have enough for personal sustenance. Some of them will have to borrow money. Even from their lifestyle, you can see that there’s nothing to show for the work they do.

“The second group believe the value system is not good and encouraging, so they will not go to medical practice, which affects Nigerians. They would rather go and borrow money from loan companies so that they could write professional exams and get to leave Nigeria.”

One of the doctors, whose monthly take-home pay is less than N300,000, said that while his current workplace was not as harsh when compared to other hospitals, he was not particularly enthusiastic about working in a Nigerian private hospital in the next few years.

He said he would need to save about five months’ worth of salary to get a comfortable apartment close to his workplace. He noted that he has to take extra shifts elsewhere to improve his earnings, and this makes him prone to exhaustion due to a lack of adequate rest.

“It is really discouraging and not motivating at all. Instead of focusing on patients, one is thinking of alternative ways to make ends meet. It has downed my passion to the extent that I am thinking of ways to branch out of the profession. It is more like there is no reward,” the doctor told FIJ.

“Every course has its importance, but when you have put so much effort and time into studying and then you discover that the reward is not there when your function is vital in saving people’s lives, it would naturally kill one’s passion.

“You are expected to stay committed to where you are working, but I have no choice but to work extra hours. I am getting a little rest. A lot of doctors are coming down with high blood pressure, but we don’t have an option but to pick up these extra jobs.

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“I have not fully found a niche where I can jump out of medicine and support myself. Otherwise, I would be out. There is no benefit to taking donkey years to achieve what would have been achieved within a shorter period.

“The time we spent in school learning and the time we spent in residency is when our colleagues are building connections and businesses out there. We don’t have time to do so because of the sensitive nature of what we do. Why then should we not be adequately compensated?

“I don’t see myself remaining in the Nigerian hospital system for long. I will definitely seek a greener pasture elsewhere. Medicine is a jealous field that does not allow you to think of money while you are attending to a patient. That (distraction) will not make you a safe doctor.”

Abimbola Abatta is a reporter with FIJ, writing reports in partnership with Report for the World which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.