UK employs additional 805 Nigerian doctors in six months
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Nigerian doctors now number 9,189 in the United Kingdom, with 805 of them licensed by the British General Medical Council (BGMC) between July and December 25.
The figure does not include Nigerian doctors trained and practising in the UK, according to BGMC data.
Another group of Nigerian doctors migrated to Saudi Arabia in August after they were recruited in Lagos and Abuja, despite Muhammadu Buhari sending Department of State Security personnel to disperse them from the interview queue.
Nigerian doctors have for years groaned under impracticable working conditions, including poor pay and a lack of equipment. Buhari simple carries on as if he does not hear. He goes abroad for medical tourism, reneging on his campaign promise.
Abuja on December 22 raised the monthly hazard allowance for doctors in federal public hospitals from N5,000 to between N32,000 and N40,000. Other health workers are to receive between N15,000 and N34,000.
However, Senators collect N1.24 million a month just to buy newspapers.
Labour Minister Chris Ngige argued before lawmakers on November 10 that doctors and other medical workers trained by the government should sign a bond to serve the country for at least nine years before they can relocate abroad.
His view was swiftly rejected by both the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) and the Guild of Medical Directors (GMD).
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Growing numbers going abroad
BGMC data reported by The PUNCH shows that 4,528 medical doctors trained in Nigeria passed the examination to practise and were employed in the UK between 2015 and July 2021, broken down as follows:
- 2015 (233)
- 2016 (279)
- 2017 (475)
- 2018 (852)
- 2019 (1,347)
- 2020 (833)
- 2021 (509) – between January 1 and July 31
By June, a total 8,384 Nigerian doctors had been licensed by the BGMC, raising the number of migrating Nigeria-trained specialists and consultants.
Among them, 1,968 are currently undergoing UK training. Others include general practitioners (1,560), specialists (1,231), and associate specialists (4,652).
Ngige floats bond for doctors
Per reporting by The PUNCH, Ngige told the House of Representatives during the defence of his ministry’s 2022 budget that
“Medical education in Nigeria is almost free. Where else in the world is it free?
“The Presidential Committee on Health should come with a proposal for bonding doctors, nurses, medical laboratory scientists and other health workers so that they don’t just carry their bags and walk out of their country at will when they are trained at no cost.
“In London, it is £45,000 a session for medical education in universities. If you go to Edinburgh or Oxford, you pay $80,000.
“If you go to the USA you pay $45,000 but if you go to the Ivy leagues, you pay $90,000 for only tuition, excluding lodging. You do it for six years. So, people in America take loans.
“We can make provisions for loans and you pay back. If the government will train you for free, we should bond you. You serve the country for nine years before you go anywhere.”
Doctors reject bond proposal
The MDCAN, GMD, and others poured cold water on the proposal by Ngige that doctors and other medical workers trained at public expense should sign a bond for nine years not to leave the country, per reporting by The PUNCH.
Ken Ekilo (professor and former MDCAN President, now a member of its National Executive Council)
“The minister’s suggestion shows a poor appreciation of the forces at play concerning brain drain in Nigeria.
“The Nigerian work environment is hostile to the medical doctors and the Nigerian security situation is hostile to Nigerian citizens. Infrastructure is poor, equipment is obsolete, drugs and supplies are out of stock, and the personnel are few, overworked and underpaid.
“There is no sense of job satisfaction, professional growth or commensurate financial reward. These are the push factors.
“The salaries being offered by the destination countries are irresistible, in addition to perks such as paid holidays, free education for children, sponsorship for training, conferences, and workshops all within the context of a stable society with functional social amenities. These are the pull factors.
“The idea of bonding doctors alone is faulty on several fronts. First, it is not only doctors that are trained at public expense, so the bond will have to be required of anyone who has passed through the public education system in Nigeria.
“The policy will send the wrong signal to workers, as it will indicate a failure of ideas on the part of government and a resort to coercion reminiscent of countries lacking in social liberty.
“The policy will encourage emigration through the backdoor and other illegal means will boom as will human trafficking.
“Lastly, the government cannot implement this without infringing on both the doctors’ fundamental human rights and the freedom guaranteed to citizens under the Nigerian Constitution.
“I sympathise with the government, it is not an easy problem to solve and difficult decisions must be made.”
Olufemi Babalola (professor and GMD President)
“This is not the way to curb brain drain in the country. I seem to recall that it was this same minister who said there was no brain drain some time ago. The fact that he is proposing this solution would suggest an acknowledgment on the part of the government that we do have a serious crisis on our hands.
“The average medical graduate seeks greener pastures abroad, not because they do not prefer to stay at home but because conditions are atrocious and salaries are scandalously low for the skill set they possess.
“A medical doctor in government employment in Nigeria today cannot afford to buy a new car. Not even a foreign-used car. That is the extent to which doctors have been debased in Nigeria.
“Let us address the issues and make the situation much more attractive and they will stay to serve their motherland. You can’t force them.”
Azeez Ojekunle (President of Association of Resident Doctors, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja chapter)
“We were looking forward to having a panacea for the long-standing massive brain drain, but quite unfortunate that response from such a stakeholder will only inevitably worsen the exodus in a rather geometric pattern.
“Such proportion will cause exodus in the early medical career path which currently is more among practising medical doctors and will then progress to medical students who glaringly see the deplorable state of practising environment in the health care sector.
“Even right now, final year medical students are begging to write examination to exit the country as soon as upon completion of their housemanship.”
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