No fewer than ninety-one Nigerian trained medical doctors were reportedly licensed by the United Kingdom’s General Medical Council in the month of October, 2022.
The doctors were said to have been accredited within the space of 15 days between October 10th to 25th October, 2022.
Against this backdrop, the total number of Nigerian-trained doctors in the UK now stands at 10,387.
It was gathered that there are at least 5,210 associate specialists, 2,318 doctors in training, 1,837 general practitioners, and 1,273 specialists among the 10,387 doctors.
The Nigerian Medical Association had cried out against the brain drain bedevilling the health sector following the accreditation of the 91 doctors by the UK medical authorities.
Aside doctors, other categories of health workers are also leaving the country in search for “greener pastures”.
Report has it that the statistics also showed that between January 1, 2022, and September 30, 2022, about 1,307 Nigerian-trained doctors were licensed in the UK as Nigeria continues to battle one of the worst situations of brain drain in its history.
However, Nigerian doctors who got medical qualifications in schools outside the country are not included in the data.
Based on the high rate of medical brain drain, Nigeria may import doctors in the future, the NMA had lamented.
Presently, Nigeria has the third-highest number of foreign doctors working in the UK after India and Pakistan.
Meanwhile, National President of the Medical and Dental Consultant Association of Nigeria, Dr Victor Makanjuola, who spoke on the development disclosed that, “In the last two years, over 500 consultants, in my estimation, have left the services of government hospitals for practice abroad.”
“All our government hospitals are consultant-led practices, which is the global standard. We have lost 500 in just two years, and we have found out that those who are more likely to leave are the younger ones.”
“To sustain the system and be able to train the next generation of medical doctors and medical students, Nigeria needs to retain the older consultants who are in their 50s and getting close to retirement so that they can stay back and train the next generation of doctors and medical students.
“Otherwise, the disaster of brain drain would be doubled because we would lose the younger ones and the older ones at about the same time, and you would find a system without consultants. This would affect the standard of care and the quality of care given by hospitals.”