By Our Reporter
The migration of health workers from East African countries presents a critical challenge to the provision of healthcare. It is a growing concern that urgently needs to be addressed. This will be key among issues discussed during the Medic East Africa Healthcare conference slated for 1st to 3rd September 2015 at the Oshwal Centre, Nairobi Kenya. The event will showcase the very latest medical breakthroughs and technological developments in healthcare and feature the leaders in the healthcare industry in Kenya and East Africa.
The Conference, supported by the Kenyan Medical Association, will provide 10 CPD points for all healthcare professionals who attend. It will also feature some of East Africa’s prominent figures in the healthcare industry and further discuss the issue of ‘brain drain’ in the region.
The event will see 14 speakers including the founder of International Hospital Kampala Ian Clarke deliberate on way forward for the industry.
Dr. James Mwanzia, Chief of Party Funzo Kenya, IntraHealth (USAID) says, “In order for East African countries to achieve Universal Health Coverage, we must ensure an adequate workforce in terms of their availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality. We must, therefore, seriously address the issue of migration of health workers.”
Currently, the retention rate of healthcare workers in East Africa is a lot less than the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends. The population ratio for all cadres is significant and the emigration only worsens the situation.
“Certain retention strategies can be put in place to address the loss of medical talent. These include scaling up the training of nurses and clinical officers, continually investing in staff recognition and motivation, improving human resources management policies, practices and governance. Using salary survey results and recommendations to review their structures, staff motivation, retention and teamwork, institutionalizing staff exit feedback and acting on issues would go a long way in solving this issue,” says Dr Mwanzia.
More than 250 healthcare and medical laboratory companies will showcase their products and services to more than 2,500 attendees .The exhibition will host leading healthcare companies such as Alvo Medical, Hill-Rom, Medel, Mindray, Olympus to mention but a few.
