The Federal Government has placed a ban on leave of absence for health professionals relocating abroad.

The Minister of State for Health, Dr Tunji Alausa, who disclosed this during his visit to the Neuro Psychiatric Hospital, Aro in Abeokuta, said the directive was contained in the Executive Order issued by President Bola Tinubu, and explained that health workers going abroad to seek for greener pastures must “henceforth resign their appointment before embarking on such journeys”.

The Minister said the decision was taken to combat the challenge of brain drain fondly called ‘Japa Syndrome’ confronting the health sector, but noted that the minister also disclosed that the federal government had commenced aggressive recruitment of manpower in the health sector.

According to him, the annual enrollment of Nurses which used to be about 28,000 had been increased to 68,000 adding that by the end of the year it would have gone up to 120,000.