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NAIROBI: At least 5,000 health workers of various cadres have been trained this year alone, the African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref) has revealed.
But many of them have ended up moving abroad instead of serving Kenyans locally, the organisation has noted.
Amref Health Africa Director General Teguest Guerma said while there are critical human resources for health shortages in Kenya and Africa, hundreds of trained health professionals remain unemployed because governments cannot afford to hire them.
"The result is that many of our nurses and doctors are working in developed countries, yet we have serious shortages of this precious resource in our countries," she spoke during Amref's graduation ceremony held Tuesday.
Dr Guerma said Amref continues to ask governments to honour the pledge they made in Abuja in 2001 to allocate at least 15 per cent of national budgets to health.
If they honoured this pledge, he said, governments would be able to employ more health workers, including nurses and midwives, to help ease the continent's health burden.
The Amref leader said Kenya and other African countries have 25 per cent of the global health burden and only three per cent of the world's health workers.
She explained that Kenya needs a well motivated and skilled medical workforce operating with functional health delivery infrastructure to tackle its health burden.
TRAINING CENTRE
The organisation held its 28th graduation for health workers Tuesday at its headquarters and international training centre in Nairobi, at a ceremony presided over by Kenya Public Service Commission Chairperson Prof Margaret Kobia.
Dr Kobia noted that strong health systems are founded on capabilities and competencies of the health workforce, hence the importance of producing well-trained, motivated and passionate health workers.
A total of 227 students graduated during event, including 95 nurses who had been upgraded from certificate to diploma level through eLearning, 23 diploma in community health students and 16 diploma in reproductive health students.
She said the health workforce must be sufficiently equipped with technical competencies.
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