Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has disclosed that the state requires about 40,000 additional doctors and another 40,000 nurses to adequately meet the healthcare needs of its growing population.
Sanwo-Olu also said the state’s healthcare system faces a funding gap of at least N100 billion between its current budgetary allocation and the resources required to provide adequate services.
The governor made the disclosure on Thursday while speaking at the opening of the second Eko Health Convention at the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.
He identified shortage of healthcare personnel and inadequate funding as the two major challenges confronting the state’s health sector, while warning that donor financing for disease control programmes was declining.
According to Sanwo-Olu, Lagos currently has about 7,000 doctors, far below the number required to properly serve its population.
“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,” he said.
The governor said the funding challenge was equally significant, noting that the state needed at least N100 billion above its existing health budget to meet the demands of the sector.
“Donor financing, which supported much of our disease control for two decades, is contracting sharply and will not return in its old form,” he said.
Sanwo-Olu said his administration had begun tackling the workforce shortage through increased recruitment, improved welfare packages and the planned establishment of a University of Medicine and Health Sciences.
He said clinical recruitment was opened across all 29 secondary healthcare facilities in the state last month, while accommodation had also been provided for health workers as part of efforts to improve retention.
“We are improving conditions to slow the departures and, increasingly, to attract colleagues back,” the governor said.
On health insurance, Sanwo-Olu said more than 1.5 million Lagos residents were enrolled in the state’s Ilera Eko health insurance scheme.
He said the figure stood at 1,502,994 as of the end of May, with women accounting for more than half of the enrollees.
The governor said rising utilisation of the scheme indicated that enrolment was translating into access to healthcare rather than merely increasing the number of insurance beneficiaries.
Sanwo-Olu also highlighted the impact of the Lagos State Health Management Agency’s Assistance in Distress programme, saying it had saved 18 lives since its launch in March.
He said the beneficiaries included people affected by road traffic injuries, surgical emergencies, obstetric crises and strokes, stressing that the intervention provided critical care regardless of patients’ ability to pay.
The governor further disclosed that Lagos was deploying technology to improve healthcare delivery through the Lagos Smart Health Information Platform, which is being implemented across public health institutions.
According to him, the platform will allow patients’ medical records to be accessed seamlessly across healthcare facilities, while strengthening disease surveillance and supporting evidence-based health planning.
He added that the state was investing in artificial intelligence and other digital innovations to improve diagnosis, medical imaging and healthcare delivery.
Sanwo-Olu said the administration was focused on establishing durable healthcare institutions rather than implementing projects that could disappear after a change of government.
He said initiatives including Ilera Eko, the health districts and the digital health platform were designed to remain operational beyond his tenure.
“We have kept our promises. Now we are building the systems that will keep them long after us,” the governor said.
