Lagos State intends to create a medical university in order to improve health professional education and address the problem of brain drain in the medical field.
This was disclosed by Governor Sanwo-Olu at the Femi Gbajabiamila General Hospital’s opening in Surulere, Lagos, which was made possible by Femi Gbajabiamila, the President’s Chief of Staff.
The governor underlined that the medical university is anticipated to open for business before the end of 2024 and is a joint venture with the federal government..
The governor emphasising the importance of the hospital project said: “This is strategic for us. This is a strategic intervention for us. Why are we setting up a health or a medical university? It is to solve two problems.
“We found out that working with the Federal Ministry of Health, we need to scale up very aggressively all of our training and all of the youths to be trained in everything within our health space.
“We cannot sit back and fold our arms as a government that cannot intervene. And so we will, as a state, hope that other states will take this initiative and set up similar universities to be able to scale up and have between 1,000 and 1,500 doctors graduating every year.
“And this will also stem, in our view, the trend of medical personnel leaving our country.
“We are not going to stop at ensuring that we provide the best facilities to be able to retain our best talents here,” he said.
