The Nigeria Government has lost over 5,000 Medical Doctors to United Kingdom, following their migration to the foreign country in the last eight years, while record has it that Nigeria has the highest number of Doctors in the country after India and Pakistan.
Penpushing reports that, the President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr Uche Rowland, made this known on Wednesday at a symposium to discuss the brain drain in Nigeria’s health sector and its implications on health service delivery.
The Nigerian Medical Association(NMA) boss added that a total of 727 Medical Doctors trained in Nigeria relocated to London in six months, between December 2021 and May this year; an indication that the total figure for 2022 would be higher than previous years.
Penpushing further reports that, Rowland confirmed that Nigeria has the highest number of foreign doctors in the UK after India and Pakistan, adding that data from the United Kingdom (UK) Medical Councils shows that there are 9,976 Nigerian Doctors in the country.
The association leader disclosed that, while the United Kingdom (UK) and the United Staes of America (USA)are the top two destinations for Nigerian medical doctors seeking job opportunities abroad, many are also migrating to Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Oman.
“In 2015, 233 Nigerian doctors moved to the UK; in 2016 the number increased to 279; in 2017 the figure was 475, in 2018, the figure rose to 852, in 2019 it jumped to 1,347; in 2020, the figure was 833 and in 2021 was put at 932. We are not just losing the consultants, we are losing fresh graduate doctors too,” he said.
Penpushing also reports that, Rowland noted that poor funding of the health sector is one of the reasons professionals are leaving the country, explaining that in 2021, the Nigerian government allocated less than five per cent of its annual budget to the health sector.
The President of the association noted that the government has its priorities but called for need to balance the equation and get serious about health investment, lamenting that the government has not done a comprehensive review of health workers’ salaries since 2009 despite inflation.
Penpushing reports that the figures were also contained in a document produced by the development Research and Project Centre (dRPC), co-organisers of the symposium, while a 2017 survey by the Nigerian Polling organisation (NOIPolls) in partnership with Nigeria Health Watch, revealed that about 88 per cent of medical doctors in Nigeria were seeking work opportunities abroad at the time.
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