Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has raised concerns over the widening healthcare gap in the state, revealing that Lagos requires about 40,000 additional doctors and another 40,000 nurses to adequately cater for its growing population.
The governor also disclosed that the state needs at least an additional N100bn beyond its current health budget to bridge critical funding gaps and sustain healthcare services.
Sanwo-Olu made the disclosure on Thursday while declaring open the second Eko Health Convention at the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Describing manpower shortage and inadequate funding as the greatest challenges confronting the state’s health sector, the governor warned that dwindling donor support for disease control programmes had further increased pressure on government resources.
“Lagos needs about 40,000 doctors to serve this population properly. We have about 7,000. We need roughly 40,000 more nurses. Every doctor in Lagos today is, in effect, doing the work of 10,” Sanwo-Olu said.
He added, “The second gap is money. There is a shortfall of at least N100bn between what our health budget provides and what this system genuinely requires. Donor financing, which supported much of our disease control for two decades, is contracting sharply and will not return in its old form.”
Despite the challenges, the governor said the state government had intensified efforts to strengthen the health workforce through aggressive recruitment, improved welfare packages and plans to establish a University of Medicine and Health Sciences.
“We have recruited aggressively, and last month opened clinical recruitment across all 29 of our secondary facilities. We have built accommodation for health workers. We are improving conditions to slow the departures and, increasingly, to attract colleagues back,” he said.
On healthcare financing, Sanwo-Olu said the state’s compulsory health insurance scheme, Ilera Eko, continued to expand access to healthcare following the domestication of the National Health Insurance Authority Act.
According to him, over 1.5 million Lagos residents have enrolled in the scheme, with women accounting for more than half of the beneficiaries.
“Today, more than one and a half million Lagosians are enrolled in Ilera Eko. As at the end of May this year, the figure stood at 1,502,994. More than half are women. Utilisation is rising, which tells us something important: that coverage is translating into actual care and not merely into cards in wallets,” he said.
The governor further disclosed that the Lagos State Health Management Agency’s Assistance in Distress programme had saved 18 lives since it commenced operations in March.
“Since it became operational in March, that programme has saved 18 lives… Road traffic injuries, surgical emergencies, obstetric crises and strokes. Eighteen people are alive because the system did not stop to ask whether they could afford to be,” he said.
Sanwo-Olu also highlighted the state’s investment in digital healthcare, saying the Lagos Smart Health Information Platform would enable seamless access to patients’ medical records across public health facilities, strengthen disease surveillance and improve evidence-based planning.
He added that the government was also deploying artificial intelligence and other digital innovations to enhance diagnosis, medical imaging and overall healthcare delivery.
Reaffirming his administration’s commitment to sustainable healthcare reforms, the governor said initiatives such as Ilera Eko, the health districts and the digital health platform were designed to outlive his tenure.
“We have kept our promises. Now we are building the systems that will keep them long after us,” he said.
