Nigerians Among Top Employees in UK Healthcare Sector
By Bethel Olujobi
In a recent report, the UK National Health Service (NHS) has recognized Nigerians as one of the top five nationalities employed within its workforce. This tabular ranking, which organizes the NHS workforce according to nationality, places Nigeria among the top five out of 101 countries.
The report indicates that there are currently 10,494 Nigerians working in the NHS, closely following Poland, which employs 10,520 health workers. The United Kingdom tops the list with over 1.1 million employed professionals, followed by India, the highest migrant country to the UK, with 32,117 workers.
It’s worth noting that the overall number of health professionals employed by the UK NHS has decreased compared to data from the previous year. Last year, BusinessDay reported that the UK granted visas to a total of 18,224 Nigerian health and care workers within one year, according to official data from the British government. Earlier this year, it was revealed that 18,143 care workers and home carers left Nigeria to seek employment in the UK in 2023, joining India and Zimbabwe as the non-EU countries with the most care workers and home carers in the UK.
However, emotions ran high as the UK government recently enforced strict new visa rules on overseas care workers this year to cut down on the country’s migration numbers. Foreign care workers were prohibited from bringing their loved ones or dependents to the UK from March 11, and the minimum income requirement for family visas was raised 61 percent to £29,000, which is expected to rise to £38,700 in early 2025.
This has led to a shortage of applications from overseas health professionals, especially from non-EU countries. New data revealed on Wednesday show a 76 percent drop in applications from foreign health and care workers for UK work visas. In the first four months of 2024, the number of skilled worker route applications fell by over three-quarters to 12,400 compared to the same period in 2023.
In Nigeria, there are just over 3,000 doctors produced annually according to the Ministry of Health, which remains highly inadequate to meet healthcare needs – Nigeria being the sixth most populous country in the world. The shortage of health manpower is estimated at 18 million people. Last year, Tunji Alausa, the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, announced plans to double the population of medical and dental doctors from 5,000 to 10,000 by the next academic year by increasing admission into medical and dental institutions.
Additionally, to combat brain drain, the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) now requires nurses in the country to have two years of post-qualification experience before verification of their certificates can be approved to seek employment overseas.
For more stories and insights like this, visit ijapa.ng and become part of our growing community.
