|
Brain drain bleeds Sadc region
By Sifelani Tsiko
THE Southern African Development Community (Sadc) is still battling to stem the flight of highly skilled professionals forcing governments to adopt a battery of preventive and recovery strategies to stem the tide.
Debate about the shortage of skilled labour in the Sadc region has been raging for many years with some social commentators warning that it has reached epidemic proportions.
And, according to reports from South Africa, Tshwane is taking practical steps to bring home about 25 000 of its health professionals working in western countries as a recovery strategy for the health care system.
Skills migration is a global problem which has seen developing countries being the hardest hit while developed nations emerge as the biggest beneficiaries.
Sadc is reeling from a crippling exodus of professional staff mainly to the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, Canada and New Zealand.
Various commentators have blamed this on problems, which include poor remuneration, low job satisfaction, inadequate employment opportunities, increasing unemployment and under-employment, increasing forms of vulnerable work, poverty, the mismatch of education and training with economic needs.
Pull factors are the attractive and dramatic difference in salaries, perks, allowances, research and study opportunities offered in the developed nations which most Sadc countries cannot afford.
Experts say countries in the region need to address the root causes of the problems, if the brain drain is to be minimised.
To stem the tide, South African health officials say they have unveiled a plan to train more health professionals as well as to improve the working conditions in that country.
"One of the things, of course, is to look at salaries —— we think it is not fair to have senior nurses earning comparable or lesser salaries than clerks," Percy Mahlathi, a South African health official was quoted as saying.
"Secondly, to make sure that conditions under which they work actually get improved —— issues of work organisation, places to stay and issues of professional development," he added.
South African health minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang pointed to the need for a regional approach to the brain drain problem since the problem was not unique to South Africa alone.
Zimbabwe, too, has been grappling with the problem and is intensifying efforts to retain qualified and experienced staff in the health care system.
Health and Child Welfare Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa said it is disheartening to note that "billions of dollars in taxpayers’’ money continues to be used to train human resources for other countries."
Zimbabwe has over the years become a training ground for other countries with a number of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and radiologists leaving the country for greener pastures, with serious consequences for the health delivery system.
"There is something you should know, there are two countries —— very rich countries in the West that need at least five million nurses within the coming year and they do not have those nurses in their own countries," Dr Parirenyatwa told a gathering at a graduating ceremony for 270 primary care nurses in Harare recently.
"You can be rest assured that we will provide those nurses for them if we are not careful. That cannot be allowed to happen and we have to take steps to address it," he said.
Zimbabwe launched the primary care nurse programme two years ago to close the gap created by an exodus of qualified nurses in the country.
The course takes only 18 months compared to the registered general nursing programme that takes three years.
Bonding has not helped much as Zimbabwe keeps on losing health professionals despite spirited attempts by the Government to address their remuneration and working conditions.
Dr Parirenyatwa warned that the Government would have no choice but to withhold the professionals’’ certificates if western countries continue to loot Zimbabwe’’s health professionals.
UK, Australia and the US are the biggest poachers of doctors, nurses and other health practitioners from developing nations, a development that has forced African health ministers who are scheduled to meet in Maputo soon for the World Health Organisation regional meeting to put brain drain high on the agenda.
In 2003 alone, a total of 2 825 work permits were granted to doctors and nurses from Zimbabwe in the UK while 5 880 work permits were issued to health professionals from South Africa.
Official statistics also indicate that about 12 500 doctors currently working in the UK are from African countries such as Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana, Malawi and Uganda that are facing serious staff shortages themselves.
"We need to address issues that make people want to leave," a Southern African Migration Project official said.
"The loss of skills is ongoing but there is still time to put in place a strong preventive and recovery strategy."
Most analysts say there has not been much political will in the region to address the issues that concern most skilled people who are leaving the region.
"It is only now that politicians are sensing the danger," said a doctor who works at Harare Central Hospital, one of the country’’s largest referral hospitals.
"Resources are simply not enough to stop the tide. Countries in the region need to address the root causes of the problem if they are serious about limiting the brain drain."
"Medical professionals have limited opportunities here for training or for professional fulfillment in delivering quality health service. That is the reason why you see most doctors and nurses leaving," he said.
The doctor added that poor remuneration; heavy workloads, dwindling research, library and medical facilities have also worked against moves by the government to retain staff.
Various studies show that the extent of the brain drain in the Sadc region is of a much bigger magnitude than what officials say, and this has serious implications on the region’’s health delivery systems.
According to the latest edition of the British Medical Journal —— The Lancet, each migrating African health professional represents a loss of US$184 000 to the continent.
A few years ago, Zambia had 1 600 doctors and now only 400 are left, in one of the worst examples of regional brain drain.
Zambian doctors have migrated to Europe, the US, Botswana and other countries were working conditions are better than what they get back at home.
A number of countries in Africa still lack adequate medical training facilities and a recent study shows that 24 out of 28 countries in sub-Saharan Africa have only one medical school while 11 of them have none at all.
Faced with a critical shortage of health specialists, countries like Zimbabwe and South Africa are now moving to recruit doctors from countries like Cuba, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Egypt.
Zimbabwe is planning to recruit doctors from Sudan. In June this year, Zimbabwe recruited 75 doctors from Cuba, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Egypt.
It is estimated that 40 percent of the 11 640 nurses’’ posts in Zimbabwe are vacant and that there is only 45 percent of the required number of doctors.
Medical experts say that Sadc countries must take the brain drain issue seriously and take practical steps to manage it through human resource plans, bilateral agreements with governments in the West, exerting pressure on western governments at international forums and at best, address the working conditions of their professionals.
"Prescribing a couple measures without addressing the issues that make people want to leave will not help much," said a Harare doctor.
"The best coping strategies and policies are those that address the working conditions first and foremost."
The brain drain is thus a potential topic for discussion at the forthcoming Sadc summit in Gaborone, Botswana.
Back to Home
|
