At least 1,197 Nigerian doctors have left for UK, following trend in Buhari years
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
At least 1,197 Nigerian-trained doctors have relocated to the United Kingdom alone since Bola Tinubu became President on May 29, continuing the exodus that escalated in the Muhammadu Buhari years of the locust.
The new figure puts Nigeria on the cusp to overtake Pakistan as the country with second highest number of doctors working in the UK, where there are also plans to recruit 300,000 doctors into the National Health Service (NHS) in the next couple of years to boost healthcare delivery.
India currently has the most doctors in the UK, followed by Pakistan and Nigeria, according to data compiled by the UK General Medical Council (GMC) the public body in charge of the official register of medical practitioners in the country.
About 1,197 doctors trained in Nigeria were licensed in the UK between 29 May and 1 December 2023, but their total number in that country is now 12,198 – excluding Nigerian doctors trained in the UK and other countries, per The PUNCH.
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Yearly rate of emigration to UK
The yearly rate of the emigration of Nigerian-trained doctors to the UK from 2015 is as follows:
- 2015 – 233
- 2016 – 279
- 2017 – 475
- 2018 – 852
- 2019 – 1,347
- 2020 – 833
- 2021 – 932
The number of some Nigerian-trained doctors practising in different medical fields in the UK is distributed as follows:
- Anaesthetics and intensive care medicine – 73
- Emergency medicine – 61
- General medicine – 241
- Obstetrics and gynecology – 207
- Occupational medicine – 17
- Ophthalmology – 16
- Pediatrics – 164
- Pathology – 50
- Public health – 35
- Psychiatry – 357
- Psychiatry – 29
- Surgery – 135
Nigerian may soon be forced to import doctors
The rate of exodus of medical personnel is of great national concern, with the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) lamenting the country may have to import doctors in the future.
“Some African countries are also beginning to poach from Nigeria,” said Emem Bassey, a professor and Chairman of the Committee of Chief Medical Directors of Federal Tertiary Hospitals.
“The West Coast is looking for our specialists. So many people are now going to places like Sierra Leone and Gambia and the wages they earn are $3,000 to $4,000.
“It is about three to four times what they earn back home. So we are beginning to see that people are leaving for other African countries too.
“The health sector is currently undergoing a major crisis in terms of manpower. What we are seeing is that medical specialists, not just doctors, even nurses, even more nurses, are leaving.
“Doctors, nurses, laboratory scientists, physiotherapists, radiographers and all manner of health professionals are leaving the country in droves.”
