NMA and NARD warn, Abuja has to improve doctors’ welfare to keep them
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Restrictions placed by the United Kingdom on the recruitment of healthcare workers from 55 countries, including Nigeria, will not stem the emigration of Nigerian doctors to greener pastures overseas, medical bodies have warned Abuja.
The UK explained the 55 countries are recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as having the most pressing health and care workforce-related challenges.
“Countries on the list should not be actively targeted for recruitment by health and social care employers, recruitment organisations, agencies, collaborations, or contracting bodies unless there is a government-to-government agreement in place to allow managed recruitment undertaken strictly in compliance with the terms of that agreement,” says the UK code.
“Countries on the WHO Health Workforce Support and Safeguards list are graded red in the code. If a government-to-government agreement is put in place between a partner country, which restricts recruiting organisations to the terms of the agreement, the country is added to the amber list.”
However, both the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) argued the UK can only define its terms as freedom of movement is a fundamental right.
NMA President Uche Ojinmah insisted Nigerian doctors migrate to other countries because they are poorly treated by the government at home.
“I don’t actually begrudge the UK for recruiting Nigerian doctors because it’s the poor treatment they are getting from Nigeria that’s pushing them away. If the Nigerian government and people place a premium on Nigerians, they obviously won’t migrate,” Ojinmah told The PUNCH.
“It is okay that the UK is placing us on the lower rungs for recruitment but what about the United States of America, Canada, Grenada, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, South Africa, Germany, etc?
“Nobody can take away the freedom of movement; it’s a fundamental right. They can only define the terms.”
NARD President Emeka Orji also stressed Nigerian doctors can go to other countries to practise the profession.
“The truth is that it is not only the UK that Nigerian health workers go to, and even with this list, it only means that they will not only be headhunting our health workers. So, that doesn’t mean people can’t apply to work in the UK,” he said.
Ojinmah speculated the restriction may be connected with Nigeria’s move to curb medical brain drain.
“I know that last year, the MDCN Registrar went to the GMC [General Medical Council in the UK] and the report we got at that time was that they discussed how to mitigate the effect of brain drain in Nigeria.
“This is purely speculative but we believe this was part of what was discussed. We can’t confirm that but it is possible,” he added.
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Nigeria’s overtures to the UK
MDCN officials in October 2022 visited the GMC office in Manchester, UK. The GMC maintains the official register of medical practitioners in the country.
The entourage included MDCN Chairman Abba Waziri, Registrar Tajudeen Sanusi, and Head of Department of Registration Henry Okwukenye.
A tweet on MDCN’s Twitter handle @MDCNOfficial on the visit said: “We had a lot of useful discussions amongst which is the possibility of the UK government to repatriate some funds in line with global health initiatives from Nigerian doctors who were trained with tax payers’ funds.
“Discussion around stemming the tide of brain drain also took place.”
The restriction by the UK coincides with a bill in the House of Representatives in Abuja seeking to impose a five-year compulsory service on doctors trained at tax payers’ expense as a condition to grant them full practice licence after graduation.
“It’s possible the Nigerian government pushed for this (the restriction) but we have not seen any official release to that effect,” Orji said, per The PUNCH.
He implored the federal government to improve the working condition of health workers and fund the health sector in order to discourage migration.
His words: “The government is now complaining that there is a brain drain but we have always known this and we have been talking about it.
“What is now expected is that government should increase the production capacity so that even when these foreign countries come for the doctors, nurses, and other health workers, you will turn it to an advantage, improve on training, infrastructure, improve your personnel and fund health, so that you will not be complaining to foreign countries to stop encroaching on your medical workforce.
“What you should be doing is encouraging it as long as you have enough. That is what India did.”
There are currently 11,055 Nigerian-trained doctors in the UK, based on GMC data.
Nigeria has the third highest number of foreign doctors working in the UK after India and Pakistan.
Other countries placed by the UK on the red list of ‘No active recruitment’ include Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lesotho, and Liberia.