Pragmatic mix of leadership styles may rescue massive brain drain in healthcare space
Pre- and post-emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, Nigeria’s healthcare situation was disoriented due to many issues that have kept it from ascending to its glorious height among WHO recognized nations. The healthcare indices have failed to improve as the fiscal policies have proved inadequate in different tiers of public hospitals.
Medical tourism has been identified as one of Nigeria’s banes, contributing significantly to capital flight, depletion of foreign exchange reserves, and a low appetite for FDI in the healthcare sector. Medical tourism from Nigeria reaches an unbelievable number of trips annually and over 1 billion USD is spent on the same outside the country. Like they said, the attitude of care givers is one of the major setbacks in the industry. Due to such nonchalant and prevailing complacent attitudes, many clients resorted to medical tourism as trust in our healthcare institutions, especially those of the public domain, is at its lowest level.
Despite all the poor indices affecting our health sector, over 33% of the population, especially the middle class, have the capacity and will to fund their healthcare costs. Among the populace, over 11 % have been covered by insurance, while the remainder is prepaid healthcare costs covered by multinationals and international organizations for their staff.
Due to poor wages and salaries prevalent in our healthcare sector in Nigeria, most of our qualified healthcare professionals prefer to emigrate to greener pastures. Most of their destinations include Canada, the USA, the UK, etc. As previously stated, and with reasons given by a few that have left this country, poor remuneration for healthcare professionals has been an explicit reason for our qualified healthcare providers leaving in large numbers for greener pastures, thereby worsening the already poor patient to doctor ratio. It is claimed Nigeria now takes the second position after India among countries whose medical personnel have emigrated in 2022. The result of poor remuneration has now given rise to hydra-headed problems in the healthcare sector unabatedly, and no end is in sight.
Tactical leadership input shall bring some remedies to the problems at hand by adopting some mix of leadership styles to try to arrest the situations.
There is no one-size-fits-all leadership approach to resolving the health sector’s numerous challenges in Nigeria. A blend of one or more leadership styles may likely produce a great outcome that will see better value for subscribers of healthcare services in our nation.
The situation leadership approach is one style that is not only adaptive but also dynamic. It tends to understudy the situation at hand and then deploys the best leadership styles that will bring the needed change. Looking at the situations above affecting our health sector, you will only agree that only a mix of the leadership styles would bring the fast-tracked change expected in the healthcare industry. No single leadership style will do the magic in isolation.
Transformational style of leadership; to effectively implement a change mantra in our healthcare infrastructure, technology, research, economic indices, a transformational leadership is the choice. A transformational leadership style will elicit positive change and open doors for investors to come and capitalize on the numerous opportunities in our healthcare industry.
An affiliate style of leadership is also needed to restore trust and confidence in the professionals, investors, and subscribers of healthcare products and services. Most social factors will be overcome if this style of leadership is adopted as a means of relating with the multilateral stakeholders of the healthcare industry.
Authoritarian style of leadership; there is a need to use a coercive approach to completely implement the legal and environmental dimensions of the factors affecting the healthcare industry. Without it, most policies will be undermined, with possible consequences including a deteriorating population health index and environmental degradation.
Nigeria remains the ultimate loser in the trend of brain drain among healthcare and other professional workers. There is an urgent need for concerted actions from public and private healthcare givers and healthcare policy makers to stem the tide of this unprecedented professional pouching by foreign governments.
Public and private healthcare providers should design a practical framework to improve, retain, and reward our healthcare givers in a way that discourages the massive exodus beyond our borders. It is true that there are huge uncertainties existing in the Nigerian business and political environment, hence the need to create an enabling atmosphere in our healthcare sector that would motivate our healthcare professionals to stay and provide their services in our various hospitals.
References
https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/550918-while-nigerian-hospitals-lament-insufficient-personnel-13000-leave-for-uk-in-one-year.html