Ali Pate, coordinating minister of health and social
welfare, says incentives will be provided to keep Nigerian healthcare workers
in the country.
He added that the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK
would struggle if Nigerian doctors withdraw from the scheme.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Pate said
Nigerian-trained health workers are in high demand, adding that 67 percent of
them who leave the country head for the UK.
“UK will need Nigerian doctors. 67% of our doctors go to the
United Kingdom and 25% of the NHIS workforce is Nigerian,” he said.
“The recruitment
countries; that recruit our professionals, should they not have some
responsibilities to help us expand the training? Because the strain of health
workers’ migration is continuous; it’s not going to stop tomorrow.
“Does the UK, for instance, want to consider expanding the
pre-service education? Can we have corridors that allow us to have a compact
that ‘you’ll take so but you will also help us train more so you will replace
them’? That is in the realm of health diplomacy and ethical replacement.
“Nigerians are very vibrant, very entrepreneurial, and very
capable wherever they are. If Nigerians hold back from the UK, for instance,
the NHS will struggle to provide the services that many Nigerians are going
there to get.”
Pate said more than 75 percent of health workers trained in
the last year left Nigeria as economic migrants.
“We have good training centres here, and the universities
are doing a great job,” he said.
He added that while there is freedom of movement and no one
can stop them from leaving, the government will make it conducive for them to
practise in Nigeria.
He said the new national policy on health workforce
migration will incentivise medical practitioners to stay in Nigeria, with improved
welfare packages and enhanced capacity development.
“We’re not stopping
anyone from leaving. We’re accepting that migration is here to stay — people
will leave, some will come back, some will migrate here from elsewhere,” he
said.
“You’re free to leave, but we will work on making the
environment more conducive, to make you more likely to stay than leave, and to
attract/incentivise those who’ve left, to come back.”
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