The Ministry of health says it is overwhelmed by the high number of foreign medical doctors who have shown interest to work in Zambia due to attractive conditions of services being offered by government.
Ministry of health spokesperson, Canicius Banda who disclosed this to ZANIS in
Mazabuka yesterday, said the Ministry of health has received applications from
medical doctors from Ukraine and Sweden to work in Zambia.
Dr Banda said Zambia has now become a prefered destination for medical personel
because of the attractive conditions of services being offered by the government.
He said the economy which is doing well has also contributed to high demand for
foreign health workers especially doctors to work in the country.
Dr Banda also said the rentention scheme introduced by government is bearing fruits
resulting in doctors getting attracted to work in rural areas.
He said currently, there are 69 doctors working in rural districts.
Meanwhile, Dr Banda has disclosed that two Zambian medical doctors who had left the
country for greener pastures have shown interest to return back home and contribute
to the delivery of health services.
He explained that the two were in the United States of America and Namibia.
Dr Banda said just last year alone, 23 doctors returned back home and are either
working in the public or private sector.
Oh God, when will we stop lying!! The foreign doctors most likely want to experience working in ‘Rural Africa’, not because there is a better pay package!! Zambia having a more attractive pay package than Sweden!!
As for the Zambians, at the end of the day Home is Home – that’s all!
Rather than bragging about retaining a mere 65 doctors in the rural area for a population of probably about 4 million people or so, why not talk about the better services delivered to the patients – more medications, more diagnostic and therapeutic equipment, equiping
staff with modern management policies – because those services are not there. So why don’t we start by working on that then – and with a better work morale and a little luck, the staff retention will follow!
I agree with mm. Dr Banda shud be talking about better service delivery and more diagnostic and therapeutic equipment and retention of zambian medical personel.
Its interesting to hear that some Zambians would like to come back, they realy miss home and would like to work in peace and contribute to national development. Its not easy for someone to make such a decision. Use them in proper positions. Do not misplace them into doing administrative jobs. Put them into positions where students can benefit from them fully.
MM is spot on. Zambia’s working conditions for doctors cannot be better than Sweden’s. Besides job satisfaction does not end with remuneration alone. One has to contend with frustrations arising from not being able to treat patients properly due to lack of facilities. If any doctors are coming to Zambia from Europe this is likely to be on a volunteer scheme or something similar.
Dr Banda talked a good fight when he was in the Resident Doctors Association. Now that he is ‘one of them’ his tune has changed. Indeed what is 69 doctors against a population of 4 million? Shame really.
This story is clearly misquoting the stats. There are not 69 doctors in rural districts in Zambia. Second, the conditions of service of Zambian doctors have improved significantly especially in the past 2 years. Frustrations are still enormous but the temptation to migrate has somewhat reduced.
#1 is wrong. MM has misinterpreted everything, calling it a brag, to suit his own rant. Nowhere in the article does it say Zed offers better working conditions than Sweden. “Attractive” does not mean “better”. Most of these foreign doctors are attracted to Zambia not necessarily for the experience of rural medicine. Most are highly qualified in diagnosis and managing infectious diseases such as malaria and TB. These are not that relevant in their Swedens, and as such do not get the same recognition as gynaecologists or surgeons get. But in Zed, they are treated as gold. They get a well above minimum cost of living pay, a rural hardship allowance a 3 to 4 bedroomed house, a personal instutional car, a car loan, a servant and education allowance for the kids, not to mention the respect they get from ordinary Zed folk at work and in their residences. These conditions are good enough to attract a malaria specialist from a non malaria endemic Sweden to a malaria endemic rural Zambia
Francis, if you have the ‘true stats’ can you please share them? And also what exactly are the significant improvements in conditions?
Anonymous, have you lived or practised in the West? Malaria experts in Sweden? Indeed there may be. but as you say malaria being non endemic in Sweden means these people may be academic experts only. I would much prefer a doctor who treats malaria every day to a paper expert. I live in the UK and I know the hassle I go through just to get malaria prophylaxis when I’m traveling home. If you are unfortunate to get malaria the only ‘experts’ you get in the North West of England are at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Incidentaly these ‘experts’ come to gain their ‘expertise’ in our countries. They don’t become experts first and the come to work for us. Take note.
#8 I live in the West, working for a Topical Diseases Research Institution. They may not be as qualified as a true Ridgeway campus grown doctor. But their academic expertise puts them on a route less favoured by demands of the West. Their colleagues specialising in other diseases like cancer, have more demand and end up with fater wallets. A place like Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine is a sanctuary for such doctors. Atleast, there they are appreciated as much as in rural Zed, altho the respect from the community cannot be equaled to that in Zed. MOH is left with no choice but to employ these paper experts since our own well experienced medics were made to migrate by Fredrick Chiluba. Over 80% of Ridgeway graduates in the last 2 to 4 years remain practicing home. It’s very important for MOH to make sure these lads and lasses are retained and attracted to stay home, and I do believe, Dr Banda and group are on the right track.
One thing MOH is coming to terms with is the fact that no matter what they do, those doctors fired by Chiluba and made to find work in the West are not likely to come back, not after the humiliation the man made em go thru. There best bet retain the newly trained and attract the paper experts at that. By the way the paper experts are the ones leading research and discovery in management of tropical diseases, malaria included. Also texts at Ridgeway are all from paper experts.
I believe MOH prepares a budget and has a budget to look after these expats. My suggestion is why not channel these resources to retaining the few Zambian doctors we still have left and also improve and the conditions for other health personnel such as Medical Officers and nurses.
A nurse out here can afford to drive and pay for childrens college education. In Zambia you would have to struggle.
#11 you are right. MOH should look into the plight of every health worker and not just the Doctors. Nurses, lab technicians, mortuary attendents, cleaners, clerks and so on all need their working conditions improved.
Yes MOH shud look into plight of every health worker. The nurses are being beaten as a result of poor service delivery in general and they are the ones at front line and will be prone to such attacks and a nurse in Zambia is poorly paid and people of zambia do not even know patient/nurse ratios for them to be cared for normally.The poor attitude of some health workers is as a result of the bad environment in which they work
Malaika, there are about 160 MDs in post in rural districts according to MOH HR database. Still low but thats more than double the quoted stats, but analysis based on wrong stats isnt worth much debate. Second, real wages (wages adjusted for inflation) in the public sector have gone up. Something might change with new and expected fuel and electric tariffs. Many doctors do have access to loans either directly from commercial banks or in house facilities. MDs are engaging in private practice or with consulting services and earn extra money. Many MDs are getting scholarships and working experiences by linking with global health programs coming thru global fund, Gates and clinton foundations, and US and European University collaborative research. In short, the professional incentives are much greater for those who are creative. People migrate for many reasons but going abroad isnt so attractive if your package is under $100,000. You could make more at home.
Health worker performance has suffered for 2 basic reasons. One, there are few audits and supervision and incentives at work places. Very few workers in Zambia believe they can be fired for staying out while should be working or even refusing to do their work. The nursing work ethic in hospitals has virtually collapsed. Relatives have to clean their patient wounds, wash, change linen, because nurses refuse to do these things.
But then you have a general economic problem which needs to be fixed if we can see better incomes.
Francis, wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OOOPS number 6,a malaria specialist would come either from India or Africa not Sweden and Ukrain not at all dear brother.
A specialist has to touch the staff and not on paper especially where a medical profession is concerned.
Lets say:We better improve on the purchase and supply of diagnostic tools.
On the other hand,lets learn to accept that propaganda is part of development for a country like zambia,actually Boss we are now fully depending on a country whose propaganda is an indomitable one.Result:
Economic boost.
More questions?Am ready to answer.Actually i do enjoy Your ART of thinking.
@ 17 Nalisa Lubasi David—China, thanks for been one who enjoys my ART of thinking. I do appreciate the fact that almost all of the arguments presented on this topic have been extremely civil. These are the true qualities of good debates. I do agree with your implied contention that a malaria expert can only come from a malaria endemic country, but there are those as well who have gained the experience away from their non endemic countries. I personally know of a Ukrainian national working at one of our four biggest hospitals, who spent 5 years serving in the then New Delhi. His specialty is TB. He went back to his home country but, I think, could not find work, let alone recogniton of his experience in India. In Zed, the man is well housed, owns 5 cars of which four operate as taxis. MOH looks at the CV of these foreign doctors before employing them, and they work the same abnormal hours as the new grads from Ridgeway, attending to above 200 patients every shift.
# 18 continued…I recently met an EU national who spent 10 yrs in Zed, and participated in the development of the secondary school curriculum. The man calls himself an expert in the Zambian education system. He’s now back in his own country but due to non recognition of his experience in a developing county’s education system, has not been able to find a teaching job but one as a shop assistant. He’s able to afford three meals a day, a flat and maintains a car. But he told me he misses Zed and recently responded to a teaching job advertisement in Mozambique, which in his judgement, offered a better deal than what he was currently getting in his super-developed first world country.
Anonymous;
Would you have said this initially.ooops its so cool and we can call such guys as exparts.
God bless and lets meet in some more developmental debated.Mulimu abe nimina “GOD be with You”h
Responponding to #12. Guys home is home ,there comes a time in life where you just feel like going home especially where the conditions are good, all i can ask the MOH to do is try and adveritsie the jobs on the net under the ministry of health and put incentives for all to view then ost of us willl come home.I love ZED my country and would like to contribute in a way or so only if i know what is in for me.
This is cool, i like the debate though not from the medical fraternity. Expertriate or not, how do we synchronize the asserssions by Dr. Banda with the much talked about mobile hospitals? Anything to do with lack of infrustructural development plans? how about the upgrading of clinics such as Chawama clinic in Lusaka to the hospital status? It sounds misplaced, but certainly, the issue of better or improved conditions of service is tied to infrustructural expansion and development. How should we look at such issues……
Anonymous
Good postings I agree with you in most cases :)
The only bad thing, is that gvt pays too much on exp.Drs than to the locals. Where ranking is same gvt should pay equal wages plus other benefits. In doing so can encourage Zed to stay at home rather than working abroad and missing relatives, friemd and schoolmates..
hi can any one tell me where can i find the vacancy/ jobs details . I will be interested to work too.
i for one say the pay is too much,lets not forget that Zambia has a lot of sectors to develop,secondly the pay for foreign doctors should be lower them that of the citizen doctor in that we don`t want people to be taking our money to their counties plus at the end of the day we want our patients to be treated by their own people (i think this should be one of the reasons for the govt to have had increased the pay) and not strangers who neither know the people of Zambia, her economy nor her past,plus they don`t care to know.All they want is the fat,juice pay at the end of the month
Hi ..im a final year medical student …and i wanted to go to UTH Zambia to work and gain experience. Does anybody have true insight of working conditions and pay for newly graduated doctors ? and whether I will be put into rotations in different department as part of training ? Id be very grateful to get a reply