Physician review thyselfLeaving doctors to practise in isolation is unfair to both doctor and patient. City doctors have a role, urges Shima Gyoh

摘要

Performance in health systems was originally assessed by dividing the population of the country by the number of doctors available within it. The average number of population per doctor gives an approximate idea but does not reflect the true situatiorianywhere in the country. Maldistribution of health workers is a particularly serious problem in rural areas. Towns have a higher concentration of health workers because they have higher populations with wealthier people, medical colleges, and teaching hospitals. In Nigeria, the number of doctors in one teaching hospital on a conservative guestimate would be more than those serving the rural areas of over ten states! To make matters worse, it is the young and less experienced doctors that are deployed to rural areas.