Etiopien sætter ind mod hjerneflugt

“We are now implementing strategies that intend to increase the current below-World Health Organization [WHO] standard number of medical doctors and retaining them in public hospitals,” Tedros Adhanom, Ethiopia’s minister of health, told IRIN.

“We have now reached an enrolment rate of more than 3.100,” he said. The rate of enrolment in the African Horn country’s medical schools has increased tenfold from 2005, when it was below 300.

“In the next two, three years, it could go to six and eight thousand,” said the minister, adding that once these students start to graduate, the problem regarding shortage of physicians (læger) in the country “will have considerably stabilized”.

While WHO recommends countries have a minimum of one doctor per 10.000 people, Ethiopia has fewer than a fifth of that ratio (dvs. 50.000 etiopere pr. læge), compared to a regional average of 2,2 physicians per 10.000 people.

“We have not supplied enough doctors despite the high demand,” Tedros told IRIN.

A draft of the country’s Human Resource for Health Strategic Plan shows an intended increase in the number of physicians to 1 per 5.000 people by 2020.

The plan seems on course, with a report presented to parliament in May revealing 2.628 students had been enrolled in 22 universities over the previous nine months. Currently fewer than 200 doctors graduate annually.

But once the new students start to graduate, “We can succeed in easing the problem significantly within three to four years,” the minister said. “Afterwards, we can also have more doctors that specialize in several sub-health fields.”

Questions over quality