Before our fleeing doctors arrive UK

Two recent developments, though seemingly unconnected, should cause the Federal Government and the Ministry of Health more worries.

In Lagos, 58 doctors were intercepted for attempting to travel to the UK without a visa. In London, the UK government relaxed its migration policies to woo the best health professionals globally. Given the benefit of hindsight, the Lagos-London route will soon get busier with cabins full of Nigerian health practitioners. But if Nigeria must for once, keep its healthcare providers at home, then proper reforms that engender better conditions of service should not remain an afterthought.
 
The Nigerian landscape is perpetually suffering from brain drain. It is one peculiar country that hates to keep its best or play its first-eleven. It is frightening that more than half of over 72,000 locally trained and registered health personnel have left the country for greener pasture. More applications are still pending at various visa processing centres for Europe, Americas, Asia and even African countries. Indeed, the recent interception of 58 doctors by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, tells of the desperation to ship out – either temporarily or permanently. By the rules, travelling without a valid visa or its equivalent is illegal. And anyone in the status of a medical doctor cannot claim ignorance of the basic international protocol and its aversion to irregular migration.

Like the UK’s NHS is doing, this period of medical emergency requires some strategic and innovative moves to strengthen the healthcare system. Our peculiar case needs a complete overhaul, with good funding of infrastructure and fellow-feeling for the frontline workers. It is not the time to further agitate the beleaguered workforce. The current industrial action or its threats by resident doctors nationwide over salary, basic Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and hazard allowances, is an anomaly, yet avoidable. 
 
A better strategy out of the woods is to rally stakeholders at various levels of governance to the realities of the moment. Handlers should be clear-headed and consensual over the roadmap of health system development, with deliverables broken into short, medium and long-term plans. The goal is to create an enabling environment both for users and the providers. It must be such that for once, places a premium on human life and reward hard work. Health insurance should be most valuable at this time, to ensure functional and sustainable healthcare financing across the country. Health insurance has made life more tolerable for all in the UK, Germany, France, Canada, United States, Ghana, Rwanda, and South Africa. Nigeria cannot be an exception if it must instil confidence in the health sector. 
 
Finally, those at the helm of affairs must remember that a nation that cannot keep its best will not develop. With the pandemic forcing all world leaders and the elite alike indoors, it must be clearer to our leaders that there is no place like home. And as you lay your bed, so shall you lie on it. Our leaders have a responsibility to the people and to themselves too to give proper health reform a chance, at least, for enlightened self-interest. Indeed, if the healthcare system among others gets better, made effective and efficient, a lot of doctors, with or without UK visas, will stay back and our world-famous practitioners will voluntarily return home.