727 Nigerian-trained Medical Doctors Relocate To The UK

Apparently, there are reports that no less than 727 Nigerian-trained medical doctors have relocated to the United Kingdom between December 2021 and May 2022.

The data has shown that Nigeria is the country with the 3rd highest number of foreign doctors that are working in the UK, only behind India and Pakistan.

As of November 2021, 8,983 Nigerian trained doctors have been working in the UK but another 727 were licensed between December 2021 and April 2022. This has brought the total number of Nigerian doctors in the UK up to 9,710.

It appears that the development occurred at a time when the Federal Government failed to pay the new hazard allowance to medical doctors and other categories of health workers.

Read Also: Nurses: Over 11,000 Have Left For Developed Countries

In December 2021, it was reported that the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, in a circular SWC/S04/S.218/11/406, had announced that the government had reviewed the hazard allowance following engagements with the unions and associations in the health sector.

In 2021, It was also reported how the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors, the MDCAN, Joint Health Sector Unions and some other affiliates of the Nigerian Medical Association had fought for the review of the hazard allowance rate.

The NMA had also warned the government regarding the high level of brain drain of which it said had continued to collapse the nation’s health sector. It has also been reported that Saudi Arabia had arranged for a recruitment exercise for Nigerian medical consultants during an industrial action by the resident doctors.