FG Targets Doctors’ Burnout, Residency Disputes with New Ministerial Committees
After years of simmering tension between health workers and government, Abuja is signalling a reset, one that places doctors’ welfare and patient safety at the heart of healthcare reform.
The Federal Government has established two high-level ministerial committees to address excessive work hours, locum engagement practices, and the long-standing controversy over residency training certification.
The committees were unveiled in Abuja by the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Iziaq Adekunle Salako, who stated that the move was designed to alleviate industrial unrest while enhancing healthcare delivery nationwide.
According to him, prolonged duty hours, inconsistent locum engagement and certification disputes for resident doctors have repeatedly strained relations between the government and health unions, often triggering industrial action.
One of the panels, the Ministerial Committee on Work Hour Regulation and Locum Engagement Policy, will audit work schedules across public hospitals, assess their impact on patient outcomes and workers’ wellbeing, and develop a national framework on safe duty hours, rostering and locum engagement.
Dr Salako warned that overworked doctors pose risks not only to themselves but also to patients, citing World Health Organisation projections that the global health workforce gap could hit 11 million by 2030, a challenge worsened in Nigeria by medical migration.
He disclosed that more than 37,000 health workers have been employed or approved for employment between 2024 and 2025, with over 70 per cent being clinical staff, but admitted that locum engagement has been inconsistently applied and sometimes abused.
The second committee, the Appraisal Committee on Certification and Recategorisation Policy, will review complaints by resident doctors over membership certificates issued by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria and the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria.
It will focus particularly on demands by the National Association of Resident Doctors for certificates after Part I examinations.
Both committees have been given between eight and 12 weeks to submit their reports, with assurances that their recommendations will receive urgent government attention.
Health sector stakeholders say the outcome could mark a turning point in restoring trust, dignity and stability in Nigeria’s fragile health system.
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