Thousands of African men and women are working as medical doctors in Ireland’s hospitals, it has emerged.
Current statistics obtained exclusively by Metro Éireann show that 8,473 African doctors who qualified in African countries are entered on the Irish Medical Council’s register.
The number excludes Africans and their descendants who qualified in Ireland or countries other than African states.
Based on the list, the medical doctors come from 19 African countries. Four countries – South Africa, Nigeria, Sudan and Egypt – top the list with numbers in four figures. Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo are at the bottom with only one doctor each.
The figures show that South Africa, with 3,061 doctors, is the most represented in terns of doctors qualified in Africa but practicing in Ireland. Nigeria comes a distant second with 2,133 doctors, closely followed by Sudan with 2,015. Egypt has 1,121 doctors, according to the figures.
Other countries whose nationals qualified in Africa but are currently registered to practice here include Zimbabwe (24), Ghana (19), Ethiopia (18), Tanzania (16) and Kenya (14).
The rest are Zambia (12), Morocco (4), Cameroon (4), the Central African Republic (2) and Sierra Leone (2).
