Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) – Trained nurses are offering highly-skilled surgical services to women in rural Ethiopia as the government races to train more doctors to address the shortage, health minister Kesetebirhan Admassu, said Wednesday.
The minister also said the government was building some 250 new hospitals to add to the 3,250 facilities available as part of efforts to radically improve healthcare.
“A good balance is needed between curative and preventative healthcare,” the minister said after witnessing the joint launch of a plan here to improve access to healthcare services for women.
“We are trying to expand tertiary health services and improving the quality of trained human resource,” the minister reiterated.
Ethiopia, home to 85 million people, is racing to improve healthcare services to women and children.
Indicators show the East African country is off course to achieving the broad goals of reducing death of mothers during childbirth.
But the minister said through other measures in place, lesser women were dying because of unplanned pregnancy and abortion.
More Ethiopian women have embraced family planning, a fact which has relaxed pressure on health facilities.
Figures show at least 39% of Ethiopia’s women are currently using contraceptive and other family planning methods.
“The increased use of family planning methods in Ethiopia has broken down any assumptions in the world. With the new data, it is possible to increase the reach by 5 percentage points each year,” Minister Kesetebirhan said.
Ethiopia, the European Union (EU) and the UN Children Funds (UNICEF) have launched a plan to radically combat premature deaths of children and mothers.
The plan aims to improve the number of mothers receiving services of skilled health personnel.
“Free healthcare for children under five is the right thing to do. We are providing it for free. This has contributed to our healthcare progress,” the minister said.
Ethiopia’s health ministry is focusing on improving the healthcare in rural areas by accelerating the training of skilled nurses to hold medium level health positions.
The minister said through a plan, known as the accelerated anaethestic programme, clinical nurses are undergoing extra training to equip them with the skills to conduct minor surgery and other surgical procedures.
“We have developed new cadres of health workers, including the Integrated Surgical Health officers to provide these skills in rural areas,” the minister said.
“We do not have the risks of brain drain. But this is a lasting solution only until we have more doctors in the country,” the minister said.
Ethiopia’s 27 national doctor training institutions are currently training several doctors due to graduate in 2015.
At least 4,000 doctors are undergoing a comprehensive training programme. About 1,000 of them will graduate in 2014 and 3,000 in 2015. There are three private training institutions.
“The investment is being made at all levels. We are also expanding the specialists facilities and working to create a society that demands services,” Kesetebirhan said.
UNICEF Country Represtative, Dr. Peter Salama, said Ethiopia’s use of “evidence-based” and “demand-driven” investment in the healthcare yielded good results.
“The government has been committed to the best possible evidence based healthcare investment,” Dr. Salama said.
The UNICEF official said Ethiopia’s health ministry employed 38,000 health workers on its payroll.
“This was the single most important reason for the improvement in the maternal healthcare,” said Dr. Salama.
