The House of Representatives Committee on Health has revealed that not less than five wards, with about 150 beds, have been closed down at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba due to a shortage of health workers.
The chairman of the committee, Dr. Amos Magaji said the five wards had to be shut because there were no health workers to operate them despite the large number of patients received at the institutions on a daily basis.
Speaking with newsmen shortly after an oversight visit to the teaching hospital, Magaji noted that the alarming rate of migration of health workers was becoming a national embarrassment to the country.
He, however, said that steps were being taken to halt the massive exodus of health professionals abroad.
He said: “We saw significant problems here. Right now, there are about five wards in LUTH, totalling about 150 beds that have been shut down because there are no nurses and doctors to work in those wards. And these are a result of the ‘japa’ syndrome we are having.
“As a committee, we will work together with the Federal Government and also with the teaching hospital to find a way out of these national embarrassments that have befallen this country
“It’s not something that can be fixed in one day, but nevertheless, we are going to be approaching it piecemeal. We are going to do what we can do immediately and what we can do long-term approach to it.”