Medical Council cancels N.9m fee for foreign-based Nigerian doctors


Nigerian foreign-trained medical doctors who intend to practise in their country of origin by applying for the assessment examination from the Mental and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) will no longer pay a mandatory N900,000 fee.

In a statement on Friday, the Mental and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) also said it had scrapped the earlier requirement for doctors trained abroad to undergo a six-month mandatory attachment programme in teaching hospitals.

Before now, while Nigerian citizens were required to pay a non-refundable fee of N900,000, non-citizens paid N1,400,000 for the programme.

Following the outcry that trailed that decision in the wake of the massive emigration of health workers In Nigeria to other countries, the two chambers of the National Assembly waded in.

In the new directive, the MDCN said candidates who have paid the N10,000 registration fee will be refunded, while it would publish another curriculum for the training.

It has already deleted the controversial directive published on its website.

The MDCN's statement read: “This is to inform the general public, that following the public reactions to the MDCN publication on the mandatory six-month teaching hospitals attachment programme for foreign-trained medical and dental graduates, especially the petition by a coalition of parents of foreign-trained medical doctors to the national assembly".

The MDCN explained that the action was based on the outcome of the meetings MDCN held with the leadership of the joint Senate Committee on Health and House of Representatives Committee on Health Care Services and the House of Representatives Committee on Public Petition.

The statement further said: “MDCN will publish in due course the curriculum for the training which has been developed by the examiners to guide the candidates in preparation for the examination.

“This curriculum was brought out from the 'Red Book' which is available on the MDCN website. MDCN would also publish the performance pattern of candidates in the previous examinations based on the country of training in order to guide parents in the choice of foreign universities for their wards, and this will be done and published after every subsequent examination".

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