Health Minister Ali Pate says doctors and nurses trained in Nigeria are sought-after globally, and that 67% of them work in the United Kingdom (UK).
The minister, on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Tuesday, said if health workers of Nigerian origin pull out of the National Health Service (NHS), the service will struggle.
He spoke on the new National Policy on Health Workforce Migration approved by President Bola Tinubu to tackle the exodus of health workers from Nigeria in a phenomenon colloquially known as ‘Japa’.
He said Nigerian doctors and nurses are attractive and the country should be proud of that. He noted that not all Nigerian health workers leave the country and that those who leave have their reasons for exiting.
He said the policy “is really about health diplomacy and promoting ethical recruitment practices”.
“The recruitment countries; that recruit our professionals, should they not have some responsibilities help us expand the training? Because the strain of health workers’ migration is continuous; it’s not going to stop tomorrow.
“UK will need Nigerian doctors. 67% of our doctors go to the United Kingdom and 25% of the NHIS workforce is Nigerian.
“Does the UK, for instance, want to consider expanding the pre-service education? Can we have corridors that allow us to have a compact that ‘you’ll take so but you will also help us train more so you will replace them’? That is in the realm of health diplomacy and ethical replacement,” Pate said.
“Nigerians are very vibrant, very entrepreneurial, and very capable wherever they are. If Nigerians hold back from the UK, for instance, the NHS will struggle to provide the services that many Nigerians are going there to get,” he added.
Pate said over 75% of health workers trained in the last year have left Nigeria to other countries as economic migrants. “We have good training centres here, and the universities are doing a great job,” he admitted.
He said there is freedom of movement and the government cannot stop them from leaving but the government will make it conducive for them to stay and practice in Nigeria.
He said the new policy will facilitate incentives for medical workers to stay in Nigeria with improved welfare packages as well as enhanced capacity development.
Another area of focus of the new policy is the promotion of a decent work environment that is not beyond 12 hours per shift.
