Windhoek
The Minister of Health and Social Services, Dr Bernard Haufiku, says there are plans to declare a moratorium on the mushrooming of general practices, including those owned by foreign doctors, as many are simply financially motivated.
Speaking in an interview with New Era on Wednesday Haufiku said: “I just submitted a Bill now to Cabinet that no one can just come and put up a practice in private as he wishes and that will apply to foreign doctors as well.”
He further said: “At the moment we are faced with a situation where general practitioners from some neighbouring African countries just come here and set up private practices. That will come to an end. As a matter of fact, we want to put a moratorium on that straight away before the law comes into place.”
He said the current mushrooming of general practices is mostly in urban areas and Windhoek in particular.
“And they are literally just chasing the money and not really providing the services that they are supposed to.
“It’s the same with pharmacies. We want pharmacies to go to the remote areas and not just to be concentrated in Windhoek.”
The minister said that the private sector cannot compete with the state as people leave the state for the private sector in search of better incentives and working conditions.
The ministry is looking at ways to retain Namibian doctors in the service of the state for at least five years, commented the minister who said that there are over 1 000 doctors being trained at various universities in different parts of the world.
Meanwhile, New Era spoke to doctors in the private sector to gauge their views on the mushrooming of general practices. Dr Erich Mansfeld, who at one point worked as a state doctor, attributed the mushrooming of private practices to “the state not paying well”.
He said doctors leave the state’s service early because in most cases they are unable to make ends meet. Mansfeld added that working in the private sector is more stressful compared to the state because in private practice the doctor has to effectively manage the practice himself.
The CEO of the Khomas Medical Centre, Karen Trümper, said: “It is critical for any community to have access to affordable quality healthcare. However, being confronted with the question on why there is a mushrooming of general practices by especially foreign doctors, one could ask the counter question – ‘why are foreigners opening general practitioners’ practices in Namibia and not in their own countries?’ Maybe the solution lies in the answer to this question.”
While it is good that healthcare services are accessible, Trümper said the challenge is to ensure the availability of trustworthy, ethical and effective medical service delivery.