1,000 doctors from Tunisia to recruited to aid South Africa's medical
professionals' shortage crisis.
By Paul Simao – PRETORIA, South Africa
South Africa is recruiting some 1,000 doctors from Tunisia and luring
back medical professionals from Britain and elsewhere to reverse a brain
drain that has hit its public health system, its health minister said on
Wednesday.
Thousands of doctors, nurses and medical assistants have left South
Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994, hobbling its ability to offer
basic healthcare to millions of poor people and cope with one of the
world's worst AIDS epidemics.
Tunisia, which has one of the strongest education systems in Africa, is
among a handful of nations that South Africa has tapped for help with
its doctor shortage. Cuba and Iran also are considering sending doctors
to Africa's economic powerhouse.
"We are now working on the final arrangements for the arrival of the
Tunisian health professionals," Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang
said in a news conference in the capital Pretoria.
Tshabalala-Msimang, who returned to her post recently after undergoing a
liver transplant, said she expected to meet the Tunisian ambassador to
South Africa later this week to get an update on the arrival of the doctors.
Once in South Africa they are expected to work in public hospitals and
clinics, especially in rural areas. Many communities do not have a
regular doctor on site, forcing people to rely on nurses or medical
assistants for primary care.
The minister also said the government was intensifying its recruiting
efforts in Britain and Canada, two Western countries that have welcomed
large numbers of South African-trained doctors and nurses.
South Africa is hoping that it can persuade these emigrants to return to
its shores.
Although not alone in dealing with a health-care worker crisis, South
Africa is doing so while battling a staggering AIDS caseload and
worsening tuberculosis problem.
An estimated 12 percent of South Africa's 47 million people are infected
with HIV, and some 1,000 people die each day from AIDS and related
diseases. TB, including extremely drug resistant TB (XDR-TB), is
becoming more common.
Aid workers, however, have urged South Africa to avoid poaching doctors
and nurses from other parts of sub-Saharan Africa where governments are
also struggling to retain qualified medical professionals.
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