Foreign Trained Doctors Fail Nigeria’s Assessment Test

The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, MDCN has refused to certify over 400 foreign trained doctors to work in the country.

The doctors, the Council said failed the examination required for certification.

The Council’s Registrar, Dr Tijani told Punch that 439 foreign trained medical and dental candidates failed the test, conducted on November 23 and November 24, 2022, at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto.

Explaining the breakdown of the two-day test, Sanusi said 916 foreign-trained medical and dental candidates sat for the assessment examination but only 477 candidates passed.

He said 24 candidates sat for the examination in Dentistry, eight passed and 16 failed. 892 candidates sat for the medical examination, 469 passed and 423 failed.

He explained that the assessment examination is a global practice, as no professional is allowed to practise in another jurisdiction without sitting for the examination.

According to him, “It is a global practice that if you train in a particular jurisdiction and you want to go to another jurisdiction, you subject yourself to an assessment examination.

“Even if you are a Professor of Medicine here and you have never practised in the United Kingdom or the United States, when you go in there, you subject yourself to their assessment examination.”

The MDCN assessment examination is compulsory for all foreign-trained doctors who plan to practise in Nigeria.

The MDCN regulates the practice of Medicine, Dentistry and Alternative Medicine in the country in the most efficient manner that safeguards the best healthcare delivery.

The assessment examination is meant for foreign-trained medical doctors and dental surgeons who want to practise in Nigeria and it tests the candidates’ ability to apply their basic medical sciences and clinical skills in a healthcare setting.

The examination is to ensure that foreign-trained doctors show themselves capable of practising in Nigeria.

On passing the examination, they are given a provisional licence to practise in Nigeria.

It is this provisional licence medical and dental graduates will use to practise during their one-year housemanship after which they are given a licence of full registration.

Meanwhile, expert in the medical sector insist that the reason why Nigerian doctors are hot cake in the world, is due to the training they received despite the dirt of funding for the sector from the government.

No fewer than 10,000 Nigerian doctors have moved out of the country to seek better working conditions in the United Kingdom, UK, in the last few months, the Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, the umbrella body for medical doctors in the country said in October.