Japa: 1,616 Nigerian Medical Doctors Migrate To UK

In the last one year, 1,616 medical professionals with training from Nigeria have relocated to the United Kingdom (UK), a new study released by the General Medical Council (GMC), which is the official registry of UK physicians, disclosed

Nigeria is the third-largest non-UK graduate contributor of doctors to the UK workforce, behind India and Pakistan with 2,402 and 2,372 doctors, respectively, according to the report titled, “The State of Medical Education and Practice in the UK Workforce Report 2023,” which was published on the GMC website in November 2023.

According to the report’s findings, of the 23,838 new doctors added to the register in 2022, 63 per cent were doctors with training from outside the UK, 52 per cent were International Medical Graduates (IMGs), and 10 per cent were doctors from the European Economic Area (EEA).

With 16 per cent of non-UK graduates joining the workforce in 2022, India and Pakistan were identified in the survey as the top contributors. It also noted that there has been a significant increase in the number of doctors entering the UK market with a Nigerian Primary Medical Qualification (PMQ).

The report disclosed that in 2014, only 181 Nigerian-trained doctors joined in 2014, making them the 11th largest group of non-UK PMQ joiners; by 2022, however, this number had increased to 1,616 doctors, making them the third-largest non-UK graduate contribution to the UK workforce.

While noting a gradual increase in the number of doctors joining the UK workforce with a different nationality than the country they gained their PMQ, the report claimed that non-British nationality doctors with the same nationality as their primary medical qualification country, such as Nigerian doctors who studied medicine in Nigeria, have seen rapid growth, comprising 48% of doctors joining the UK workforce in 2022.