About 266 Nigerian doctors register with the UK's General Medical Council during June and July

BRITAIN'S General Medical Council (GMC) which licenses and maintains the official register of medical practitioners in the UK has licensed at least 266 Nigerian doctors during the course of June and July this year.

Amid a severe crisis in the Nigerian health sector, more and more doctors are leaving for abroad, with the UK among their top destinations. According these latest statistics, at least three Nigerian doctors were licensed per day in June and July this year, despite moves by the Nigerian government to stop the exodus of doctors and health workers from the country.

At the moment, the GMC register shows that the number of Nigeria-trained doctors in the UK currently stands at 9,976. This figure does not include other doctors of Nigerian origin who did not undergo medical training in Nigeria but presently, Nigeria has the third highest number of foreign doctors working in the UK after India and Pakistan.

According to the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria over 100,000 doctors who have registered with the council but many of them are now leaving to travel abroad. Nigeria, with a population of over 200m citizens, has a very low doctor to patient ration, way below the World Health Organisation’s recommendation of 1:600.

Apart from the UK, other popular destinations for Nigeria-trained doctors include the US, Canada, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Australia. To tell the drain, the Nigerian Medical Association has continued to call on the federal government to provide a thriving environment for doctors and health workers to curb the massive brain drain.