Mozambique Needs Health Professionals for COVID-19 Fight But 200 Doctors are Unemployed
Doctors in Mozambique have expressed concern that some doctors remain unemployed despite the current challenges the health sector is experiencing amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mozambique is facing a shortage of health professionals as a result of Covid-19 yet some 200 members of the Order of Doctors of Mozambique [(OrMM] are without a job, the association said.
OrMM President, Gilberto Manhiça, said it did “not make sense” that doctors had no job.
“What we are experiencing at the moment is dramatic, because we have around 200 colleagues, unless I’m mistaken, who are not employed. So, in a pandemic situation like this, it’s difficult to have to digest a situation where we have locally trained doctors who don’t yet have a job.
“This is what I would like to draw the attention of the relevant authorities to: the fact that it does not make much sense for us to be advocating that we are protecting the population, when in fact the doctors who are trained here do not have a job,” he said.
Manhica was speaking during a radio programme on the role of professional organisations in the fight against Covid-19 in Mozambique.
Meanwhile, Norway recently pledged an additional 15 million Norwegian kroner ($ 1.7 million) to support the WHO office in Mozambique.
The funds will support the Government’s COVID-19 response with a special focus on vaccine distribution.