Doctors trek to Lesotho, frustrated with govt

Failure by government to hire 48 junior doctors has frustrated the new graduates, forcing them to cross borders and offer their services elsewhere, notably in Lesotho.

A representative of the junior medical doctors, Mphatso Phiri, said in an interview yesterday due to lack of government commitment to engage them, several of their colleagues have become frustrated and started applying for internship in other African countries.

He said the first cohort of 10 doctors already started their internship in Lesotho after being offered the letters while the other team is scheduled to start anytime.

Said Phiri: “I can confirm that 10 of the doctors have already started and about eight or 10 more will be going anytime because they already got the offer letters. But what is happening is that every day people are applying because there is no hope that we will be engaged by government.”

Commenting on the issue, president of the Association of Medical Doctors in Malawi, Douglas Lungu, said it was disappointing that the country was failing to recruit its own doctors after spending millions of kwacha training them.

He observed that the decision was also discouraging people who were training the doctors and he hoped that government will think again and reconsider the situation.

Ministry of Health (MoH) announced recently that it would not recruit the doctors and nurses/midwives, including pharmacists and physiotherapists, who had just finished their training at the University of Malawi’s College of Medicine (CoM) and other institutions due to economic constraints and hiring freeze within the civil service.

However, following a public outcry that included a 14-day ultimatum jointly issued to government by the Medical Doctors Union and Society of Medical Doctors to engage the doctors, the decision was reversed and MoH pledged to offer the doctors contracts.

But since the decision was made, government has reportedly remained mum, a development that has forced some of the 48 doctors to look for opportunities in foreign countries.

MoH spokesperson Adrian Chikumbe did not pick up his mobile phones after several attempts, but he told The Nation last month that despite committing to giving the doctors contracts, the ministry did not know where funding would come from.

Health rights activist Martha Kwataine, in an interview yesterday, also expressed worry with the development, arguing that some decisions “carelessly made by government were costing the country a fortune”.

The new doctors are usually deployed for an 18-month internship at Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) and Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) within the first two months after the release of their results.

Initially, there were 51 graduate doctors, but three were from other countries and have since gone back to their respective homes.