By: Sorie Ibrahim Fofanah
The Sierra Leone Government has deployed 110 new doctors across the country, which has had a paucity of medics especially in the provinces. Fifty of them were sent to the countryside and the remaining 50 in and around Freetown.
Minister of Health and Sanitation, Dr. Austin Demby said the number of doctors – who will be doing their houseman-ship for about two years – represented a 20 per cent increase in the current number of doctors in public service.
Speaking in an interview with Politico, he said that of the little over 500 doctors there was in the country, only 350 of them were in clinical care for a population of around 7 million.
“Sierra Leone is faced with the issue of inadequate medical doctors to match up with the growing number of the population. It is therefore important to have at least five to seven thousand doctors to meet the basic needs for the country,” the minister went on.
He said that when he succeeded Dr Alpha Wurrie as the minister one of his engagements with him was the need to increase the enrollment as well as the quality of medical students from fifty to sixty every year which he said was now being realised.
Dr Demby said there plans underway to expand medical school to Njala University and possibly the University of Makeni (UNIMAK) even though he said they were pleased with the enrolment numbers at the current medical school of College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences which admitted 300 students last year and more than 400 this year..
Despite that satisfaction, he said the country needed around 6,000 doctors “to meet the basic needs” of its people.
He said that the current and future doctors graduating needed the hospital facilities and equipment to be able to put their craft into practice and look after the health needs of the people.
Dr. Demby said that some “anonymous donors” had given some money, which was being used “to invest in the preservice training as well as the post-service training for medical doctors”.
“One of the things we will be able to do is to invest in the preservice and as well as the post service training for medical doctors,” the minister said.
Dilating on the set of 110 fresh graduates doctors, the minister said that 50 of them had already finished a year of their two-year houseman-ship while the remaining 50 would were beginners who would be working under a “high level of supervision”.
He went on to say “to make things easy for the young doctors, as they go out, we have agreed to give them an allowance to cover their accommodation,” which he said would be the leone equivalent of $ 150 in addition to their salaries.
He said the young doctors expressed their desire to pay back to the country, as they were more needed in Sierra Leone than abroad, heaping praises on them by calling them “bright,” “determined” and “intelligent”.
He said their message to them was thus: “The Government and the people of Sierra Leone paid for your training [and you are ] funded by taxpayers’ resources.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Demby reiterated that they would be reaching out and providing support to the recruited medical doctors out in the field.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (07/08/23)
