NBGS appeals for return of health professionals

July 11, 2010 (AWEIL) — The government of southern state of Northern Bahr el Ghazal on Sunday appealed to native health professionals in the Diaspora to constitute themselves into a body for purposes of coming down to extend training and services to their local counterparts and the communities.

Bona Makuac Mawien, minister of information and communications said the way for the state to benefit from the enormous investment it had made over the years and continues to make in the training of health professionals is not only to retain them but to also tap the rich experiences and expertise of those who had left.

“We have a lot of our health professionals abroad. We have a lot of our electrical and civil engineers abroad. We a lot of our much experienced and fine professional lawyers abroad. We have a lot of experienced and people who have taught for many years as professional teachers and people from other disciplines including journalism abroad. All of them are there. We have these resources but only that some of our people are irritable to return,” he said.

Mawien who paid a visit to few of the health centers in the town said health workers can contribute in different ways to the construction and development of the region. He said they can open a fully equipped private health clinic or school or form an association or work with international organization supporting local development or relief activities.

Mawien who is one of the newly appointed ministers in the state government also acknowledged the ever rapidly changing trends in the medical practice the world over and said without continuous medical education the region’s medical profession riskes becoming outmoded. He commended the regional government of southern for establishing and supporting health institutions.

He also thanked health and education partners for helping the region to sustain quality continuing medical education in the region over the past years that were impacting well on the health care delivery system.

The minister, however, said the government was worried about the persistent high morbidity resulting from preventable diseases, high maternal mortality and the disparity in access to health care among both the rural and urban poor and called on donor communities to honor their pledges so that the regional and state governments lay greater emphasis on maternal health care.

He repeated the government’s resolve to continue to dialogue with the leadership of health professionals to arrive at mutually acceptable salaries for health staff.

Governor Malong Awan equally welcomed any initiative fostering relationships with foreign health organizations and local counterparts by making experts available to share experiences of modern diagnostic techniques and skills to complement government’s efforts at providing affordable health care to people.

He appealed to Heads of health institutions in the region to come out with innovative ways to complement the efforts in providing medical care to residents and citizens of Northern Bahr el Ghazal, adding lack of systematic programs of continuous education and class refresher courses in the state had created a worrying state of knowledge deficit among practitioners in terms of current developments in the medical field.

Awan said was well aware of the critical importance of continuing medical education and was ever ready to embrace any initiative and interventions that were geared at improving the quality of medical training at all levels of the profession.

This would put it in a better position to achieve accurate diagnosis, effective treatment and quick recuperation of patients and thus ensure the optimum use of the limited resources available to the health sector, said Malong Awan Anei, Governor of Northern Bahr el Ghazal while interacting health practitioners in his residence in Aweil town on Sunday.

(ST)