Federal Government Introduces New Policy Limiting Temporary Doctors’ Contracts to Six Months in Nigerian Health Institutions
The Federal Government has rolled out a new policy framework aimed at regulating the engagement of locum, or temporary, doctors across federal health institutions in Nigeria, placing a firm limit on how long such doctors can be retained under temporary arrangements. The Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare disclosed this development in a circular dated August 13, 2026, signed by Dr Abisola Adegoke on behalf of the Minister of State for Health. According to the ministry, the new framework forms part of a broader effort to address longstanding concerns raised by health sector unions regarding irregular and exploitative practices associated with the engagement of locum medical staff across the country.
The policy, formally titled the Policy on Locum Engagement in Health Institutions in Nigeria, was introduced alongside a companion document known as the Policy on Work Hour Regulation for Health Workers in Health Institutions in Nigeria. Together, the two frameworks are designed to address widespread concerns over excessive working hours, burnout and the prolonged use of temporary staffing arrangements that have persisted across federal hospitals for years. The ministry explained that both policies emerged from the work of a dedicated committee inaugurated earlier in the year by the Minister of State for Health, tasked specifically with developing solutions to longstanding disputes over doctors’ working conditions.
According to the ministry, the locum engagement policy is intended to streamline how temporary doctors are hired, eliminate practices amounting to casualisation of medical staff, and ensure full compliance with Nigeria’s existing labour laws, public service rules and established schemes of service within the health sector. Under the new framework, locum doctors will now be limited to renewable contracts capped at six months, a measure aimed at preventing hospitals from relying indefinitely on temporary medical staff instead of pursuing proper, permanent recruitment processes. The move addresses years of criticism from health worker associations, who have argued that some institutions repeatedly renewed locum arrangements for extended periods without ever converting qualified doctors into substantive staff.
The accompanying work hour regulation policy addresses a separate but closely related concern, focusing on the prolonged working hours frequently reported by doctors and other health workers across federal institutions. The ministry stated that the policy was necessitated by what it described as the debilitating effects of extended work hours, including burnout, depersonalisation and heightened risks to patient safety resulting from overworked medical personnel. Under the new rules, mandatory rest periods and clearer regulation of duty hours are expected to be enforced across affected institutions in an effort to reduce fatigue-related risks for both health workers and the patients under their care.
These reforms follow months of tension between the Federal Government and doctors’ associations, including the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors, which had previously raised concerns over what it termed abusive locum appointments and excessive workload as part of a broader list of welfare demands. The ministerial committee responsible for developing the new policies had been specifically mandated to conduct a nationwide audit of work hours and shift patterns, assess their impact on both patient outcomes and health workers’ wellbeing, and establish clear pathways for transitioning locum doctors into permanent employment where appropriate.
Officials within the ministry have described the introduction of these two policy frameworks as part of a broader new deal for health professionals, aimed at reducing recurring industrial disputes and strengthening the overall stability of healthcare delivery across the country. With Nigeria continuing to grapple with a persistent shortage of medical personnel driven partly by the emigration of doctors seeking better opportunities abroad, the government has framed these latest measures as an important step toward improving working conditions and retaining medical talent within the country’s public health institutions going forward.
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