The recent migration of doctors from Nigeria seems to be on the rise as a check on the website of the UK medical council on Thursday evening showed that the number of Nigerian doctors working in the UK had risen to 7,875 in less than a week.
The NMA described the ongoing migration of medical doctors as “the second peak of doctors’ mass exodus” after the mass departure of medical practitioners from the country in the 1990s.
Statistics from the World Health Organisation show that Nigeria currently has a shortage of medical doctors with a physician-to-patient ratio of four doctors to 10,000 patients.
Recall that fifty-eight medical doctors were prevented from leaving Nigeria by the Nigerian immigration service at the Murtala Muhammad international airport in Lagos on Friday, July 10.
A statement released by the Immigration spokesman, Sunday James, says the doctors had planned to sneak out of the country via the Lagos airport. James said 56 out of the 58 doctors had no valid UK visas and would have been repatriated when they arrived in the UK. He said the service will not allow individuals or groups of well-educated Nigerians who should know the procedures for travelling out of their country and the requirements during the COVID19 pandemic, to flout relevant laws. Nigerian airspace is at the moment closed to international flights.
