Japa: Why 67% of Nigerian doctors work in UK – Pate
The Coordinating Minister oHealth and Social Welfare, Prof. Ali Pate, has given reasons why no fewer than 67 per cent of Nigerian doctors practise in the United Kingdom.
Pate said Nigerian-trained doctors and nurses were in high demand worldwide because Nigerians are very vibrant, entrepreneurial, and very capable wherever they are.
The minister stated that the National Health Service in the UK would struggle if Nigerian doctors withdrew from the scheme.
Speaking during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Tuesday, monitored by our correspondent, Pate proposed that countries hiring Nigerian health workers, like the UK, should expand pre-service education programmes in Nigeria to balance the migration of professionals with local training efforts.
The minister said, “The UK will need Nigerian doctors. 67 per cent of our doctors go to the United Kingdom, and 25 per cent of the NHIS workforce is Nigerian.
“The recruitment countries that recruit our professionals; should they not have some responsibilities to help us expand the training? Because the strain of health workers’ migration is continuous, it’s not going to stop tomorrow.
“Does the UK, for instance, want to consider expanding the pre-service education? Can we have corridors that allow us to have a compact that ‘you’ll take so but you will also help us train more so you will replace them’? That is in the realm of health diplomacy and ethical replacement.
“Nigerians are very vibrant, very entrepreneurial, and very capable wherever they are. If Nigerians hold back from the UK, for instance, the NHS will struggle to provide the services that many Nigerians are going there to get.”
The minister also noted that over 75 per cent of health workers trained in Nigeria in the past year have left the country for opportunities abroad.
Continuing, Pate said while the government cannot restrict freedom of movement, efforts will be made to create a more favourable environment to encourage health workers to stay and practise in Nigeria.
“We’re not stopping anyone from leaving. We’re accepting that migration is here to stay—people will leave, some will come back, and some will migrate here from elsewhere.
“You’re free to leave, but we will work on making the environment more conducive, to make you more likely to stay than leave, and to attract/incentivise those who’ve left, to come back,” he said.
Pate added that the newly approved National Policy on Health Workforce Migration by President Bola Tinubu will provide incentives for medical workers to stay in Nigeria through improved welfare and enhanced capacity development.
Many Nigerian healthcare workers leave the country for greener pastures, leaving their colleagues to contend with additional workload and extended call hours.
The push factors, according to them, are inadequate equipment, worsening insecurity, poor working conditions, and poor salary structure.
As of December 3, 2023, the number of Nigerian-trained doctors licensed to practice in the UK was now 12,198, according to data from the General Medical Council in the UK.
Also, no fewer than 281 Nigerian doctors are working in other African countries, according to the data obtained from the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria in 2023.
The MDCN data showed that 153 Nigerian doctors are practicing in Sudan; followed by South Africa with 41 doctors; Egypt 17; Ghana 17; Uganda 13; Gambia – seven.
Others are Lesotho -six; Cameroon – four; Namibia -four; Algeria -two; Ethiopia -two; Kenya -two; Liberia -two; Benin -one; Botswana -one; Equatorial Guinea -one; Niger -one; Rwanda -one; Sierra Leone -one; Seychelles -one; South Sudan -one; Tanzania -one; Togo -one; and Zambia -one.
So far, a total of 13,656 Nigerian-trained nurses and midwives are practicing in the United Kingdom.
This is according to the latest report on the number of nursing and midwifery professionals on the Nursing and Midwifery Council register as of March 31, 2024.
The report also showed that Nigeria is one of the top non-UK countries of education as of March 2024, and the number of Nigerian nurses and midwives practicing in the UK increased by 28.3 per cent in one year.
