Nigeria has been added to the red list of nations not to be pursued for recruitment as a result of the United Kingdom government’s announcement that it will stop hiring health professionals from that nation.
The World Health Organization (WHO), in a study published a month ago, listed 55 nations with major health workforce difficulties, with Nigeria being one of them.
As a result, the UK government has recommended firms in the health and social care sectors to refrain from actively seeking employees from certain nations unless there is a government-to-government agreement.
The UK government’s website contains a statement titled “Code of Conduct for the International Recruitment of Health and Social Care Personnel in England” that highlights this mandate.
“Consistent with the WHO Global Code of Practice principles and articles, and as explicitly called for by the WHO Global Code of Practice 10-year review, the listed countries should be prioritised for health personnel development and health system-related support…” part of the statement reads.
“Countries on the list should not be actively targeted for recruitment by health and social care employers, recruitment organisations, agencies, collaborations, or contracting bodies unless there is a government-to-government agreement in place to allow managed recruitment undertaken strictly in compliance with the terms of that agreement.
It would be recalled that in 2021, the UK suspended the recruitment of healthcare workers from Nigeria and 46 other countries.
The country noted that the increasing scale of health and social care worker migration from low and lower-middle-income countries threatens the achievement of their nation’s health and social care goals, ThePunch reports.
Currently, there are 11,055 Nigerian-trained doctors in the UK, according to the UK General Medical Council’s data.
Nigeria has the third-highest number of foreign doctors working in the United Kingdom. The top countries are India and Pakistan.
