Nationality and country of training of medical doctors in Malawi.

BACKGROUND There is growing interest in the migration of doctors from Africa to developed nations. Little attention has been made in understanding the flow of doctors into African countries. OBJECTIVE To describe the nationality, country of primary qualification as a doctor and specialties of doctors registered in Malawi in 2003. METHODS Review of Medical Council of Malawi 2003 register and University of Malawi-College of Medicine graduation records. RESULTS There were 252 doctors registered by the Medical Council of Malawi (MCM) of whom 51.2% were Malawian and 48.8% non-Malawian. 35.7% of the doctors had obtained their primary education in Malawi, 17.5% from the UK, 9.9% other African countries and 8.7% from other African countries. There were 72 specialists of whom 23 were Malawian nationals and 49 were non-Malawians. CONCLUSIONS There is almost an equal distribution of national and non-national doctors in Malawi. However, among specialists, non-national far out-number Malawians by over two and a half times. While the brain drain of doctors from developing nations to developed nations has received interest, there is need also to explore the migration of doctors into resource-poor countries such as Malawi.