Anaesthesia manpower need in Nigeria

DISCLOSURES: NIL ABSTRACT Aims: To compare the anaesthesia and surgical manpower in four tertiary hospitals in Nigeria and assess the anaesthesia work load in those institutions; to determine the per capita anaesthetist manpower in Nigeria (anaesthesia providers per 100,000 population) and compare with what obtains in other regions of the world. Materials and Methods: This is a multicentre study carried out in four tertiary hospitals in Nigeria between June 2011 and June 2012. The hospitals were University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) Enugu, National Orthopaedic Hospital Enugu (NOHE), University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) Benin and Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) Jos. Data were collected from the records of the various hospital operative rooms and intensive care units (ICU). Results: Our study revealed that the ratio of consultant anaesthetist to consultant surgeon was 1:6.6 in UBTH Benin, 1:7.9 in UNTH Enugu, 1:11.7 in JUTH Jos, and 1:9.5 in NOH Enugu. The ratio of resident doctors in training in anaesthesia to those of surgery was 1: 7.3 in UBTH, 1: 5.3 in UNTH: and 1:10.6 in JUTH. On the whole, there were a total of 100 anaesthetists to 767 surgeons (consultant plus resident doctors) in these four hospitals. The physician anaesthesia provider per 100,000 people in Nigeria was 0.113. Conclusion: The per capita anaesthetist manpower in Nigeria is extremely low when compared to developed countries. Training institutions must ensure sufficient funding and recruitment into the training programme in order to develop the specialty and improve expertise.