Trouble As UK Returns Nigeria To Red List Countries (DETAILS)
Some days after the World Health Organisation (WHO) tweaked the Health Workforce Support and Safeguard list, the United Kingdom has also revised its policy on recruitment of health workers from overseas.
The code of practice for the international recruitment of health and social care personnel in England, recently updated, has Nigeria returned to the red list countries, which means, “no active recruitment is permitted”.
In a related development in-country, there is already an outrage against the Federal Government’s plot to forcefully keep doctors in Nigeria through a new bill proposing a five-year pre-licensing practice for Nigeria-trained doctors.
Renowned practitioners and medical associations were at the weekend, unanimous that arm-twisting or “enslaving” healthcare professionals is not the solution to acute brain drain.
By the updated WHO’s workforce safeguard list, and now adopted by the UK government, Nigeria and the likes of Benin, Cameroun, Ghana, Senegal, Zimbabwe, and 47 others – mostly African countries – are now in the no recruitment list.
According to the UK Home Office, “If a government-to-government agreement is put in place between the UK and a partner country, it will restrict UK employers, contracting bodies, recruitment organisations, agencies and collaborations to the terms of the agreement. The country will be added to the amber list and recruitment can happen only on the terms of the agreement .
“Changes to the red and amber country list may be made on an ad hoc basis as government-to-government agreements are signed. All agreements will take WHO guidance on the development of bilateral agreements into account.
“It is recommended that employers, recruitment organisations, agencies, collaborations and contracting bodies check the red and amber country list for updates before any recruitment drive.”
