The Nigerian Medical Association has reacted to the United Kingdom government’s code of practice for the international recruitment of health and social care personnel, which strategically restricts the country’s health workers to the European nation.
According to the NMA President, Dr Uche Ojinmah, Nigerian can still doctors migrate to other countries because they are poorly treated by the government.
“I don’t actually begrudge the UK for recruiting Nigerian doctors because it’s the poor treatment they are getting from Nigeria that’s pushing them away. If the Nigerian government and people place a premium on Nigerians, they obviously won’t migrate.
“It is okay that the UK is placing us on the lower rungs for recruitment but what about the United States of America, Canada, Grenada, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, South Africa, Germany, etc?
“Nobody can take away the freedom of movement; it’s a fundamental right. They can only define the terms,” Ojinmah said in an interview with ‘The Punch’.
The UK has, in its code of practice, listed Nigeria among 54 other countries where health workers should not be actively recruited.
It explained that the 54 countries were those the World Health Organisation recognised as having most pressing health and care workforce-related challenges.
The UK code read in part, “Countries on the list should not be actively targeted for recruitment by health and social care employers, recruitment organisations, agencies, collaborations, or contracting bodies unless there is a government-to-government agreement in place to allow managed recruitment undertaken strictly in compliance with the terms of that agreement.
“Countries on the WHO Health Workforce Support and Safeguards list are graded red in the code. If a government-to-government agreement is put in place between a partner country, which restricts recruiting organisations to the terms of the agreement, the country is added to the amber list.”
