How Doctors, Pharmacists ‘Bribe’ Their Way To Housemanship, Internship

Graduates of medical and other allied health courses are increasingly finding it difficult to secure placement for housemanship (as house officers), internship, as well as residency training programmes in hospitals, an investigation by Daily Trust revealed.

The graduates include those who read Medicine, Pharmacy, Medical Laboratory Science, Nursing, Physiotherapy and Radiography, to mention a few.

But some health facilities said the graduates were the architects of their problems because they always want to be posted to certain places.

Findings revealed that public hospitals and hospital management boards have few spaces and slots yearly, compared to the number of applicants.

Therefore, many of the applicants have to rely on connections to highly placed or influential persons or resort to bribing officials to secure placement. 

The challenges in securing placement often leave many of them frustrated and struggling for years, thus missing other employment and academic opportunities.

While the now central placement of doctors for housemanship by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) has helped, when compared to previous years, doctors are still having difficulties securing placement for housemanship because of limited spaces and waiting time for posting, among other issues.

Pharmacists and other young allied medical and health practitioners have also called for central placement by their regulatory councils to alleviate their suffering.

Read more: https://dailytrust.com/doctors-pharmacists-bribe-their-way-to-housemanship-internship

Ifah Sunday Ele
Ifah Sunday Ele
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