The UK has red-listed Nigeria and 53 other countries due to reluctance by healthcare or social care employers to hire them.
A month ago, the World Health Organization named Nigeria as one of the 55 countries with the most pressing universal healthcare workforce problems. Nigeria has the third highest percentage of foreign doctors working in the UK, after Pakistan and India.
UK medical and social care organizations identified by WHO as having the most urgent medical and care needs, unless there is a government-to-government agreement to support controlled recruitment efforts, in a revised Code of Practice He said that he would not actively recruit from countries where resource challenges.
A large migration of doctors from Nigeria has slowed the growth of the doctor population relative to the country’s population growth. A 2017 survey conducted by the Nigerian Public Opinion Research Organization (NOIPolls) in partnership with Nigeria Health Watch found that 88% of Nigerian doctors were looking for work abroad at the time.
According to the Nigerian Medical Association, at least 50 doctors travel abroad each week. The main causes include poor working conditions, low income, weak access to medical aid and the rising cost of living.
“Nigeria will lose on both sides if doctors continue to emigrate in large numbers. Gone are the doctors we need to keep our society healthy and prosperous. We are also losing billions of dollars the country has invested in public universities to train doctors due to inadequate salaries and other adverse conditions.”it added.
There are currently 44 government-accredited medical schools and colleges in Nigeria, 37 of which are fully accredited offering a range of medical courses over a period of six years. Upon graduation, doctors must complete domestic duties, obtain a license, and then perform one year of compulsory national service.
The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) estimates that between 3,000 and 3,500 doctors graduate from the country’s medical schools each year.
The admission requirements for medical schools in Nigeria are very strict, especially due to the limited number of places available due to a lack of facilities and human resources. Due to intense competition for limited places, many applicants now choose to continue their medical education abroad.
The pathetic budget allocations of the healthcare sector over the past two decades reflect the whole story. The African Union recommended in Abuja in 2001 that member states should spend at least 15% of their annual budget on the health sector. Experts regret that the country’s current allocation continues to fall short of this target.
Unfortunately, political elites would rather spend money on the private medical industry than treat themselves and their families in foreign hospitals. We need laws to stop elected officials from using taxpayer money to pay for private health care abroad and to force them to make appropriate investments in public health systems.
The need for action at the national level to stem this frightening trend and avoid Nigeria’s projected shortage of doctors cannot be overestimated. Reliably predicting patterns of immigration from a country and identifying the drivers of those trends are essential for an effective national response.
An important step would be to ensure that all qualified physicians, at their regular salaries, and, in this case, even if the federal government had to provide additional funding to the states to cover the increased costs, get employed in the public health system. Staffing.
Remuneration for physicians in all groups of the public health system should also be reviewed as a matter of urgency and increased by at least 100%. Third, governments may also consider lending to companies.
This will allow the establishment of private practitioners with enough patients to pay doctors at rates consistent with the public system.
