According to the Minister of Public Health, “the Cameroonian health system has a deficit of 68,000 personnel”. Which, added Minister Manaouda Malachie, “does not allow our country to reach the standards of the World Health Organization (WHO)”.
The government member made this revelation before the deputies of the Finance Committee of the National Assembly at the time of the defense of the budget of the Ministry of Public Health for the 2025 financial year. Asked by the deputies to explain the lack of medical personnel in health facilities, the minister stressed the “need to recruit health personnel in view of the shortage of doctors and that, in accordance with the plan for controlling staff numbers, recruitment is done taking into consideration its financial sustainability by the State”, we can read in the report of the said committee.
However, he reassured that “efforts are being made to provide each locality with health personnel”. Moreover, Manaouda Malachie told the deputies that “given the sensitivity of the public health sector, a project for the massive recruitment of health personnel is underway. It will ultimately significantly reduce the deficit in this area”. Promises that had already been made a few years earlier.
Indeed, it should be recalled that 4 years ago, in December 2021, before the same audience, Manaouda Malachie had already acknowledged a deficit of 55,000 health personnel. On that occasion, the Minister of Public Health had requested an envelope for the following year that would make it possible to “strengthen the availability of quality human resources in health facilities, to develop a new human resources development plan and to conduct advocacy and social dialogue in favor of improving the working conditions of health personnel”. However, by the Minister’s admission, with a new deficit of 68,000 personnel, this is a gap that has increased by 13,000 people compared to 2021.
It should be noted that according to the Cameroon Business Association, the Cameroonian employers’ organization, doctors are, along with teachers, the professional categories that immigrate the most to Canada. There are 6,000 who will have left between April and August 2024.
SBBC