Nigeria’s Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate, has said the United Kingdom-funded National Health Service will struggle to survive without Nigerian medical professionals.
Pate disclosed this while speaking during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today program on Tuesday.
The Minister spoke on the heels of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s approval of the Policy on Health Workforce Migration to checkmate the exodus of Nigerian-trained healthcare workers.
Pate, explaining the dearth of healthcare workers in Nigeria, stated that 67 percent of Nigerian-trained doctors have migrated to the UK.
He stressed that while the new health policy doesn’t stop Nigerians from migrating, it will make Nigeria’s working environment more conducive for health workers to stay.
“The UK will need Nigerian doctors. 67 percent of our doctors go to the United Kingdom, and 25 percent of the NHIS workforce is Nigerian.
“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.”
“We’re not stopping anyone from leaving. We’re accepting that migration is here to stay—people will leave, some will come back, and some will migrate here from elsewhere.
“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/incentivize those who’ve left, to come back,” he said
DAILYPOST
