By Desmond Ejibas
Sanusi disclosed this on Thursday while administering the oaths to the graduands at the 43rd Induction/Oath-taking ceremony at the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT).
He said that 32 of the inductees were medical doctors while 21 were dental surgeons.
According to the registrar, the number of the newly inducted physicians has further increased the number of qualified physicians in the country.
Sanusi said Nigeria in recent years had been faced with shortage of medical practitioners partly due to preference of some to practice their trade abroad.
According to him, MDCN was aware of shortage of doctors in the country and as such was doing everything possible to remedy the situation.
“However, in as much as we need more doctors, MDCN is not ready to compromise quality for quantity.
“We took this stance because, if a doctor is not properly trained, the patient as well as the entire medical profession suffer the consequences.
“If doctors are poorly trained then they will definitely constitute danger to public health. We believe that universities and their teaching hospitals must work hand-in-hand,” he said.
Sanusi said the council was aware of the challenges faced by newly trained doctors, especially in the area of getting placement for their housemanship.
He said that medical graduates would soon have ability to choose location and hospital of their choice for their mandatory housemanship.
The registrar commended UNIPORT for producing top-notch medical graduates, urging the institution to maintain its qualitative education standard in the country.
Speaking, UNIPORT Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ndowa Lale, said the university was currently expanding its facilities by focusing on admission of more students in various medical programmes in the university.
He said that the university would soon complete its Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences complex and Department of Anatomy building, with funding from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
“We are very hopeful that this will persuade the MDCN to increase our carrying capacity in the number of students admitted into the College of Health Sciences,” he said.
Lale told the inductees that the medical profession had no room for mediocrity and professional misconduct, advising them to abide by the ethics of the profession.
One of the inductees, Dr Ezinne Okoronkwo, 26, expressed happiness over her graduation, having spent seven years training to become a dental surgeon.
Okoronkwo, who could not control her joy, thanked her parents for funding her studies as well as the entire UNIPORT community.
“I am also excited that MDCN is currently making efforts to ensure that new doctors get placement for their housemanship. This is a good development,” she said. (NAN)
