Dr Terfa Kene, President of the Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria (APHPN), has said that Nigeria lacks sufficient public health physicians due to a nationwide shortage of medical doctors.
Kene made this known during an interview with reporters on Tuesday in Abuja. He noted that the deficit in medical doctors is limiting the country’s ability to train and produce the specialists needed for effective public health practice.
“Public health physicians must first be medical doctors. Since we don’t have enough doctors, we naturally don’t have enough public health physicians,” he said.
He explained that public health physicians work at the community level, delivering preventive care and essential health interventions across various sectors.
Kene said members of the association are drawn from academia, local governments, state and federal institutions, as well as non-governmental organisations.
He revealed that the shortage at the local level has led to heavy reliance on task shifting, with community health workers filling the gaps created by insufficient medical officers of health.
Kene added that Nigeria is not producing enough public health physicians, while brain drain continues to weaken the existing workforce as professionals migrate in search of better opportunities.
He noted that the exact number of public health physicians in the country remains unclear due to poor registration and data gaps. However, the association currently has over 3,000 registered members.
Dr Kene highlighted the critical role public health physicians play in policy development, epidemic response, and healthcare delivery at all levels of government.
He disclosed that the association has commenced plans to build a national secretariat and estate, which will also support telemedicine services to improve healthcare access in underserved and hard-to-reach areas.
“We can deploy telemedicine devices in those locations so our doctors can provide consultation at little or no cost,” he said.
Kene appealed to Nigerians and organisations to support the project through funding or material contributions to ensure its timely completion.
