Close to 500 medical workers have resigned from the Ministry of Health and Medical Services since the beginning of the year.

Minister for Health Dr Ratu Atonio Lalabalavu said a capacity building was underway to plug the mass professional drain to overseas offers and better local working conditions.

He said 326 nurses had resigned from the ministry in the first six months of this year.

Dr Atonio said these attrition numbers were because of many pull and push factors that included migration, search for greener pastures, education, family welfare, higher salaries and aggressive recruitment techniques by overseas recruitment agencies and local private hospitals.

He said the migration affected the ministry’s ability to deliver quality service and increased the workload for those who remained with the ministry.

He said not only nurses were resigning from the ministry.

“Fifty-four medical officers had resigned in the first six months of this year,” he said.

“We had lost 37 allied health workers that included five dieticians, six environmental health officers, 11 laboratory technicians, 12 medical imaging technologists and 3 physiotherapists.”

Capacity building

The ministry has pursued capacity building for its workforce with the support of central agencies of Government and supplemented by development partners.

“The in-service training for medical officers ensured that our doctors are upskilled and updated in knowledge, skills and competencies while attaining post graduate qualification.

“For the 2023 academic year, the Australian government Pacific Scholarship for Midwifery sponsored 20 registered nurses through its in-service training budget.

“Forty registered nurses are expected to graduate as midwives at the end of the 2023 academic year and they will be formally recruited in 2024.”

He said for doctors, 150 medical interns were recruited in January, while 80 medical officers had been recruited, with the remaining to be recruited after their internship.

“For oral health practitioners, 205 oral health practitioners with another 25 to be recruited in the last financial year bringing the total to 230.

“For allied health workers such as dietician, physiotherapist, pharmacist, medical Imaging technologist, laboratory assistants and environmental health officers and biomedical technicians, 558 of the 717 positions have been filled through an ongoing recruitment process and 87 more posts were processed during the last financial year.”

Feedback: inoke.rabonu@fijisun.com.fj