Health Minister Amir Aman (MD) is urging medical professional to behave ethically and serve citizens while they are simultaneously raising their concerns.
“The requests by medical professionals have been forwarded for over five years and the government is aware of them,” Amir said.
Education opportunities, professional structure, incentives, obtaining medical equipment to provide adequate medical services and mismanagement were some of the main issues presented when 3,000 medical professionals across the country held discussions with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed last week.
“The ministry categorized all the requests into three areas in order to solve the problems. Some of them may need revised proclamations, policies, directives, legal frameworks to get these resolved,” he said.
According to the Minister, the discussion went well and some problems are being worked on even though medical professionals may not be satisfied yet.
The ministry needs interventions from the prime minister to solve many issues and remembering the establishment of task forces to oversee issues raised by medical professionals to address the rest of the demands based on the analysis.
Concerning incentives and paradigms the ministry has no right to decide upon rather regional states are mandated to provide depending on their budget.
There is still a shortage of medical professionals and the ministry is working towards quality training by building the capacity of teaching hospitals and reducing the number of students.
Because of the limited number of medical professionals, the ministry allowed medical graduates to work in anywhere they want if they remain for two years. They have also created a uniform civil service system. The ministry hopes that medical professionals will not disrupt health services.
“Further discussion with the regional states and two city administrations will be held to address the concerns in a regional context,” Amir added.
