Doctors recruited from Nigeria to work in the UK made to work excessive and dangerous hours

NIGERIAN medical doctors recruited from abroad to work in the UK have lamented how they are being exploited by being made to work excessive hours which they fear may even put their patients’ health at risk.

Given the crisis in the Nigerian health sector, doctors are leaving the countries in drives and the UK is one of their favourite destinations. Faced with a chronic shortage of health personnel in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, the UK is desperate for medical and healthcare staff so has not been shy to recruit from developing nations like Nigeria.

According to a BBC investigation published on its website yesterday, there is evidence of how a British healthcare company recruits doctors from Nigeria to work in private hospitals under conditions not allowed in the National Health Service (NHS). Augustine Enekwechi, one of the doctors who spoke with the BBC, who worked at Nuffield Health Leeds Hospital in 2021, said he was approached by NES Healthcare, a private company that specialises in employing doctors from overseas, and was offered visa sponsorship and a potential job.

However, he said he failed to notice that the NES contract opted him out of the law that protects UK workers from excessive working hours and left him vulnerable to a range of salary deductions. Dr Enekwechi added that his hours were extreme as he was on call for 24 hours a day for a week at a time and he was unable to leave the hospital grounds, making him feel like he was in a prison.

Dr Enekwechi said: “I knew that working tired puts the patients at risk and puts myself also at risk, as well for litigation. I felt powerless and helpless, you know, constant stress and thinking something could go wrong."

The British Medical Association (BMA) described the situation as shocking, adding that the sector needs to be in line with the NHS working practices. Another doctor, Dr. Femi Johnson, who worked at another hospital said he was also expected to work 14 to 16-hour days and then be on call overnight.

He added: “I was burnt out. I was tired, I needed sleep. It’s not humanly possible to do that every day for seven days.”

Dr Johnson said that when he needed a break, the NES was entitled to deduct money from his salary to cover the cost of finding a replacement doctor. According to the BBC investigation, 92% of the doctors recruited by NES had been recruited from Africa, with 81% of them from Nigeria.

Dr Jenny Vaughan from the BMA, said she received many complaints from resident medical officers, adding that the UK healthcare system has developed into two tiers. One for NHS doctors and the other for international recruits working in the private sector.

She added: “No doctor in the NHS does more than four nights consecutively because we know that it’s frankly not safe. This is a slave-type work with excess hours, the like of which we thought had been gone 30 years ago.

“It is not acceptable for patients for patient-safety reasons. It is not acceptable for doctors,”

Emma Runswick , the deputy chair of the BMA said the situation was a disgrace to UK medicine. Currently, about 10,000 doctors who obtained their degrees in Nigeria currently practise in the UK.