A new report by the British National Health Service (NHS) Monday contended that Nigerian-trained nurses and midwives currently top the list of health workers in the United Kingdom with 4,722.
The data from the NHS stated that at the end of May, not less than 1,000 medics including doctors had migrated from Nigeria and other African countries to the UK with Nigeria accounting for more than 60% of the migrants.
According to the data, one in three doctors and nurses who joined the NHS in England last year were recruited from overseas with the major catchment area being Nigeria, a development the NHS says has raised concerns that the health service in the country is becoming over-reliant on foreign recruits.
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The analysis also revealed that 34% of doctors who joined the UK health service in 2021 came from overseas, with India, Pakistan, and Nigeria the most popular countries.
A breakdown of the medics shows that Nigeria was bettered by India and the Philippines with 21,357 and 17,825 nurses and midwives, respectively.
Nigeria which is also the highest ranked African country on the medics list, is followed by Zimbabwe which has 1,633, Ghana, 1,333, Australia, 774, Italy, 764, Republic of Ireland, 748, Romania, 663, Kenya, 641, Jamaica, 498, Portugal, 482, Nepal, 451, United States, 432, Spain, 371, UAE, 298, Guyana, 264, Saudi Arabia, 246, Greece, 231 and Trinidad & Tobago with 192 health workers.
Recall that in May, the Nursing and Midwifery Council of the United Kingdom (NMC) revealed that 7,256 Nigerian nurses and midwives had migrated to the UK between March 2021 and March 2022.
According to the NMC data, between March 2017 and March 2018, around 2,796 Nigerian nurses migrated to the UK, while 3,021 Nigerian trained nurses relocated to the UK between March 2018 and March 2019.
Between March 2019 and March 2020, a total of 3,684 Nigerian nurses migrated to the UK while in 2020, around 4,310 Nigerian nurses moved to the UK between March 2020 and March 2021, according to the data which also revealed that of all foreign trained nurses who were registered in the UK, Nigeria was in third place with the highest number of migrant nurses behind the Philippines and India.