Following reports that the United Kingdom is implementing a new ‘Health and Care Visa’ policy to attract the best doctors in Nigeria and other parts of the world, the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire has advised Nigerian doctors with emigration plans to reconsider.
Speaking during Thursday’s Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing, the Health Minister discouraged such plan by Nigerian doctors, stressing that they will not be paid hazard allowances in the United Kingdom.
“I think we are one of the few countries giving hazard allowance. Now, this UK where they are going to, there’s no hazard allowance. They don’t give doctors hazard allowance. You just get your salary, that’s all. I’ve spoken to doctors there and they said it’s part of their job, part of what they’re trained for. But here, apart from your salary, we still try to add something to it in the hope that we’re going to attract our people to stay,” Ehanire said.
Punch reports that until June, medical doctors in Nigeria earned as meagre as N5,000 in hazard allowances monthly. The ‘Health and Care Visa’ policy allows for a cheaper and more comfortable way for healthcare professionals to move to the UK.