By TAWANDA MUNYUKI
DOCTORS are shocked that Government is not going to employ all the 800 who are unemployed, that only 500 will be recruited and it is not known over what period.
The Resident Doctors Association of Zambia was surprised to learn that only 500 positions for medical doctors have been advertised out of the over 800 submissions made to the Ministry of Health.
Equally, different medical health associations were baffled over what they termed as low number of positions advertised in the recruitment of 11, 276 health workers.
Pharmaceutical Association of Zambia president, Kennedy Saini said out of the 510 submissions which were made to the Ministry of Health for consideration, only 47 positions have been advertised.
Mr Saini said this does not even meet half the demand for pharmacists in the country as there is a gap of over 50 percent.
“What we expected was a substantial number of what we submitted but this is below five percent,” he said.
He said this during a media briefing yesterday by the Ministry of Health were the minister, Ms Sylvia Masebo was engaging different medical health associations’ representatives.
Biomedical Society of Zambia president Daniel Mwimbe said they were confident that a higher number of people to work in laboratories would be recruited.
Dr Joseph Kabalo, who was representing the Zambia Association for Physiotherapy also said there was need for the government to employ more physiotherapists as a lot of people in this sector had not been hired in a long time.
He said out of over 700 submissions that the association made, the ministry had advertised 220 positions which was disappointing.
Other organisations that have also complained over the low recruitment numbers in their categories include the Zambia Institute of Environmental Health, Zambia Association of Anaesthesiologists, Zambia Association of Public Health and the Zambia Medical Practitioners Association among others.
In response, Ms Masebo, said the concerns of all the stakeholders had been noted and will be taken into consideration.
She said the recruitment was an ongoing process and that the number would eventually increase as time goes by.
