The health minister says the government is exploring means to recruit foreign health workers if at all the health ministry’s attrition rate crosses 10 percent. The ministry’s current attrition rate stands between 7 to 8 per cent. During the Meet The Press session yesterday, the health minister said that the ministry acknowledges the fact that if the attrition rate reaches an alarming level, it would disrupt the delivery of health services in the country. To address this concern, the minister said the ministry is adopting a few strategies.
The national referral hospital has the highest resignation of health workers with almost 12 percent attrition as of now. According to the minister, to address the shortage of health workers, contract employees have been recruited.
Health Minister Dechen Wangmo said, “We have a strategy in place in which if the attrition falls above 10 per cent, we are also considering recruitment outside. This is being currently explored by National Medical Services (NMS). However, if the attrition is below 10 per cent, we believe internationally that an institution should be able to adjust through task shifting and this is what we are doing.”
In a recent notification, the health ministry has also informed the health workers that those planning to resign from their posts should give a resignation notice period of six months. The minister said this is to help the ministry plan and prepare replacements to have minimal effect on the service. Moreover, the minister also said that the recently-launched in-country MBBS programme is also one of the interventions to address the increasing attrition rate.
The health minister added that the ministry has increased the intake of nurses by almost 170% this year. “We also started our MBBS project programme in the country so that we can address this attrition in the long term.”
The minister also said that there is no significant impact of the current attrition rate on the health service so far.
Namgay Dema
Edited by Kipchu
