He said: “For a population of 201 million, Nigeria has less than 90 clinical oncologists who provide cancer treatment to over 100,000 cancer patients across the cancer centres.
“In our calculation, it means that there is only one cancer doctor to over 1,100 cancer patients in Nigeria.”
While lamenting the mass migration of healthcare workers from Nigeria to foreign countries in recent years, Chidebe said the situation had worsened the inequitable distribution of health care workers in the country.
“As of today, 9 in 10 Nigerian physicians are seeking opportunities abroad.
“In Nigeria, there are 74,543 registered physicians, however, only an estimated 40,000 are practising in the country for a population of 201 million,” he lamented.