Our correspondent discovered that the accreditation of the
91 doctors occurred over 15 days between October 10 and October 25, 2022.
The total number of Nigerian-trained doctors in the UK now
stands at 10,387.
There are 5,210 associate specialists, 2,318 doctors in
training, 1,837 general practitioners, and 1,273 specialists among the 10,387
doctors.
The accreditation of the 91 doctors came amidst cries by the
Nigerian Medical Association against the brain drain bedevilling the health
sector.
Apart from doctors, other categories of health workers are
also migrating.
The PUNCH reports 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.
The NMA, while lamenting the high rate of medical brain
drain, said Nigeria may import doctors in the future.
Nigeria currently has the third-highest number of foreign
doctors working in the UK after India and Pakistan.
The National President of the Medical and Dental Consultant
Association of Nigeria, Dr Victor Makanjuola, while commenting on the situation
earlier, said, “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.”
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