Nigeria loses over 6,000 doctors to the UK over the last six years according to International College of Surgeons

NIGERIA has lost 6,221 doctors to the UK over the last six years according to statistics just published by the International College of Surgeons Nigerian Section (ICS-NS) which believes that the development will have long term effects.

According to the college, the constant loss of doctors has made it difficult for over 40m Nigerians to get medical attention as the patient-to-doctor ratio has dropped sharply. At the recent ICS-NS 56th annual general meeting and scientific conference held in Lagos last weekend, the college highlighted the serious challenges the Nigerian health sector is facing.

Professor Akanimo Essiet, the president of the college and Professor Lucky Onotai, its secretary, issued a joint statement on the problem.  They pointed out that Nigeria's Japa  phenomenon has drastically reduced the size of the country's healthcare workforce.

Their statement read: "Studies show that about 87% of our workforce are dissatisfied and wish to emigrate to greener pastures. Before 2022, we had a ratio of 1 doctor to 4,000 patients whereas the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended standard is 1 doctor to 600 patients.

"Evidence shows that the gap widens and the number of registered Nigerian doctors in the UK rose from 4,765 in 2017 to 10,986 in 2023. This meant that 6,221 doctors were lost to the UK in the past six years, which suggests that over 40m Nigerians will find it harder to see a doctor.

“With the weakening of our currency against the US dollar, our healthcare professionals now earn between one-fifth to one-tenth of what their foreign counterparts earn. Our healthcare policy needs to gradually transform from the predominantly out-of-pocket financing method into the Nigerian Health Insurance Agency (NHIA) financed method.

It added that private sector-led healthcare mega businesses can be encouraged with good regulation to boost the funding of healthcare services. This will lead to improved emoluments for healthcare workers and facilities as well as better access to quality healthcare for Nigeria and as such the ICS-NS recommended that there should be universal health coverage provided at the national, state and local government levels.

Their statement added: “The security situation in the country is alarming and impacting negatively on the health status of Nigerians. Government should act decisively to bring it under control.

“State and local governments should endeavour to attract healthcare workers by providing good healthcare facilities, good roads, improved electricity, access to potable drinking water, outstanding schools and access to telecommunication. This will lead to an improvement in the number of healthcare workers in those areas.

“The government at all levels should support the ICS-NS surgical missions each time the college requests for collaboration and funding to achieve the desired excellent surgical care delivery to Nigerians. For these to be achieved, budgetary allocation for health necessarily needs to be significantly improved to ultimately reach the WHO recommended percentage of the national budget.”