16,000 health professionals sought better jobs abroad

Health ministry study says level of job satisfaction is quite low

ISLAMABAD: Stressful work environments, poor pay along with a host of other issues in the health sector has been contributing to discontent among health professionals who have been seeking employment opportunities abroad, government statistics reveal.

The National Human Resources for Health (HRH) Vision (2018-30), prepared by the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination and recently released, reveals a high-level of discontent among health professionals.

As a result, over 16,000 health professionals have left for greener pastures abroad in the past nine years.

According to Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment, as many as 14,487 physicians and 2,349 nurses had registered with the bureau as working abroad between 2008 and 2017.

In 2017 alone, some 1,632 physicians and 293 nurses were registered for overseas employment.

Most of these doctors headed to the Middle East to find work.

The document shows that in 2015, as many as 12,125 Pakistani doctors registered with the bureau were working in the US. A further 5,194 doctors and 1,051 nurses were working in the UK. About 897 doctors and 232 nurses were working in Canada.

Game of fractions

The high attrition rate is worrisome for health administrators who are already battling the lowest densities of health workers in the region and globally.

Pakistan currently has a density of 1.4 essential, skilled health professionals such as physicians, specialists, nurses, lady health visitors (LHVs) and midwives to 1,000 people. The minimum threshold necessary to achieve universal health coverage is stated be 4.45 per 1,000 people.

The density of physicians per 1,000 people is a worrying 0.96 in the country. However, it gets worse for nurses, midwives and LHVs who have a density of 0.49 per 1,000 people.

At the specialist level, it falls even further. By the end of 2017, a total of 40,328 specialists were registered with the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) — the central registration body for health professionals. This translates into a density of 0.19 per 1,000 people.

The health ministry study adds that the level of job satisfaction among health professionals is quite low at the moment, whether in the public sector or in private health centres. This determination, the health ministry noted, was based on the frequent protests undertaken by different health professionals and professional associations across the country.

Missed opportunity

The health ministry noted that a significant number of women doctors, who complete their studies, never join the labour market owing to family reasons, including marriage.

This has been a longstanding complaint among medical circles but one which the government or the medical profession has yet to address.

Better opportunities

According to doctors who either worked abroad or whose colleagues have found a home outside of Pakistan, say they find better opportunities and working environment abroad.

Dr Haider Abbasi, who has been completing his specialisation in gastroenterology at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), said that more than 70 per cent of his colleagues had left Pakistan and were now working at different hospitals abroad.

“They get paid a handsome salary, get respect, and at the same time have a clean and comfortable environment to work in along with relaxed duty hours,” Dr Abbasi said.

He went on to cite his short stint abroad.

“I worked for a short time at the UK Kings College hospital,” Dr Abbasi recalled, adding, “You do not get tired there.”

When asked to describe the contrast in the working environment, he said that in Pakistan, not a day goes by that he does not “get fed up, either with the heavy workload or for receiving a beating from the attendants.”

There are two types of migration: within and outside the country, explained Health Director General Dr Asad Hafeez.

“At least 1 million health professionals will be needed in the country to meet health development goals,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 16^th, 2018.