| Home | Politics | Human Rights | Water | Economy | Education | Sci & Tech | Culture | Sport |
By Groum Abate - Capital
16 May, 2007
Medical doctors that work in the five Addis Ababa City hospitals finally managed to secure house allowance and additional benefits from the city as of next week.
Samson Tekeste, Health Service Team Leader with the Addis Ababa Health Bureau told Capital that all medical personnel would get a 350 birr house provision allowance and other benefits are doubled.
According to the team leader the doctors would get their back pay starting from December 10.
The allowance for the night shift has also been doubled for medical personnel.
Doctors around the country have been in direct negotiations with relevant officials of the government to get benefits such as house provision allowance and untaxed professional benefits from the Ministry of Health.
Young doctors, who are due to graduate this year have been engaged in talks with Minister of Health, Dr. Tewodros Adhanom and Minister of Capacity Building, Tefera Walewa for the last couple of months, on issues relating to a raise in salary as well as getting their credentials at hand upon graduation. The government retains their degree even after graduation unless they complete the required social service in the country by working under the Ministry of Health.
According to Samson, the city has not raised their salaries but managed to increase their allowance because only the federal government could increase salaries.
Gandhi, Empress Zewditu, Ras Desta, Menilik, and Yekatit 12 hospitals are administered by the Addis Ababa Health Bureau.
According to official data, Ethiopia trained 2,491 general practitioners between 1988 and 2001, but in recent year’s, one-third have already left the country seeking better employment opportunities in North America, Europe and South Africa.
The country also lingers at the bottom in world rankings of health professional ratios as Ethiopia can only boast one doctor for every 34,000 people and one nurse for every 4,900 people.
A young doctor with a masters in medicine, working at the Addis Ababa Black Lion Hospital complained that Cuban and Russian doctors are paid 15 times more than her Ethiopian colleagues.
“It is hard to blame a trained and educated person for leaving the country because of the many obstacles in the path to success,” she complained. “I earn a monthly salary of 1,300 birr and I believe this is very low considering the sacrifices I made while attending my medical studies and the day to day intensive work involved.”
According to a recent international study, there are more Ethiopian doctors in Washington DC than in the whole of Ethiopia. Some of the compelling factors for the brain drain is poor working conditions, limited career and educational opportunities, low pay and economic instability.