The Nigerian Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate , has lamented that health systems remain weak in many developing countries like Nigeria partly because they continue to lose their trained health professionals to developed countries that did not invest in their first professional education. Giving his remarks at the opening plenary of the 77th World Health Assembly (WHA) Tuesday, Mr Pate said half the world’s population is still experiencing “health poverty”, deprivations of access to affordable basic health care, such as immunisation, reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health care. The 77th WHA is being held in Geneva, Switzerland, from 27 May to 1 June.
The theme for this year’s event is “All for Health, Health for All.” Hundreds of Nigerian health workers migrate annually to more advanced countries, mainly because they seek better working conditions and better quality of life. Some of the popular destinations include the UK, Canada and Saudi Arabia.
Various statistics show that over 5,000 Nigerian medical doctors migrated to the UK between 2015 and 2022. According to the development Research and Project Centre (dRPC), 233 Nigerian doctors moved to the UK in 2015; the number increased to 279 in 2016; in 2017 the figure was 475; in 2018, the figure rose to 852; in 2019 it increased to 1,347; in 2020, the figure was 833 and in 2021, it was put at 932. Nigeria’s medical education, like most of its tertiary education in public institutions,.
