Over 500 doctors work abroad
Mar 04, 2008
OVER 500 Ugandan doctors and thousands of nurses work abroad, according to the Ministry of Health. Minister Dr. Stephen Mallinga blamed the braindrain on low pay and poor work conditions.
By Anne Mugisa and Raymond Baguma
OVER 500 Ugandan doctors and thousands of nurses work abroad, according to the Ministry of Health. Minister Dr. Stephen Mallinga blamed the braindrain on low pay and poor work conditions.
The problem, according to Mallinga, is made worse by the global deficit of four million health workers, which is attracting the Ugandan doctors and nurses to more lucrative countries.
He said sub-Saharan Africa alone lacks over 1 million health workers. He said the Ugandan health workers are very well-trained and highly sought after.
Mallinga, together with the World Health Organisation officials, were addressing journalists at the beginning of the First Global Forum on Human Resources for Health in Kampala.
The three-day conference has attracted participants from 57 countries. Under the theme: “The Time to Act is Nowâ€, conference organisers hope to address the problem of brain-drain of health workers and find ways to stop it.
Mallinga said every country employs Ugandan doctors, with over 200 of them in South Africa. Uganda’s neighbors, he added, offer attractive packages. For instance, Sudan pays them in American dollars.
The brain-drain, Mallinga argued, was hurting the provision of health services in Uganda, especially the survival of mothers and children, and shortening life expectancy.
This is because there is just one doctor for every 100,000 patients, Mallinga added. “There is an urgent need to train doctors and keep them in Uganda. Now it is difficult to retain them. Recently, we lost three very senior doctors: Dr. Kakande and two other physiologists to Rwanda.â€
The minister said the President had invited him to discuss the possibility of providing health workers with housing and transport. He did not say when the meeting would take place.
“We hope the President will order the Ministry of Finance to provide resources for the health workers’ allowances,†Mallinga said.
“They cannot pay rent with the money they are given. Nurses walk in their uniforms to their stations of work. We need to increase their remuneration.â€
The doctors, according to Mallinga, are also aggrieved by the lack of state-sponsored training.
Of the 300 doctors on post-graduate training at the medical school, only 30 are government-sponsored. The rest are mostly foreigners.
The chief of the Global Health Workforce Alliance, Prof. Francis Omaswa, said at the end of the conference, a 10-year plan of action would be drawn to deal with the brain-drain. About $3b would be needed per year to train 1.8 million health workers for the next eight years, he noted.
The alliance is a partnership of organisations dedicated to addressing the crisis in the health workforce, and operates under the World Health Organisation.
OVER 500 Ugandan doctors and thousands of nurses work abroad, according to the Ministry of Health. Minister Dr. Stephen Mallinga blamed the braindrain on low pay and poor work conditions.
The problem, according to Mallinga, is made worse by the global deficit of four million health workers, which is attracting the Ugandan doctors and nurses to more lucrative countries.
He said sub-Saharan Africa alone lacks over 1 million health workers. He said the Ugandan health workers are very well-trained and highly sought after.
Mallinga, together with the World Health Organisation officials, were addressing journalists at the beginning of the First Global Forum on Human Resources for Health in Kampala.
The three-day conference has attracted participants from 57 countries. Under the theme: “The Time to Act is Nowâ€, conference organisers hope to address the problem of brain-drain of health workers and find ways to stop it.
Mallinga said every country employs Ugandan doctors, with over 200 of them in South Africa. Uganda’s neighbors, he added, offer attractive packages. For instance, Sudan pays them in American dollars.
The brain-drain, Mallinga argued, was hurting the provision of health services in Uganda, especially the survival of mothers and children, and shortening life expectancy.
This is because there is just one doctor for every 100,000 patients, Mallinga added. “There is an urgent need to train doctors and keep them in Uganda. Now it is difficult to retain them. Recently, we lost three very senior doctors: Dr. Kakande and two other physiologists to Rwanda.â€
The minister said the President had invited him to discuss the possibility of providing health workers with housing and transport. He did not say when the meeting would take place.
“We hope the President will order the Ministry of Finance to provide resources for the health workers’ allowances,†Mallinga said.
“They cannot pay rent with the money they are given. Nurses walk in their uniforms to their stations of work. We need to increase their remuneration.â€
The doctors, according to Mallinga, are also aggrieved by the lack of state-sponsored training.
Of the 300 doctors on post-graduate training at the medical school, only 30 are government-sponsored. The rest are mostly foreigners.
The chief of the Global Health Workforce Alliance, Prof. Francis Omaswa, said at the end of the conference, a 10-year plan of action would be drawn to deal with the brain-drain. About $3b would be needed per year to train 1.8 million health workers for the next eight years, he noted.
The alliance is a partnership of organisations dedicated to addressing the crisis in the health workforce, and operates under the World Health Organisation.