New project to attract doctors to rural areas

Kyrgyz authorities are set to launch a new project aimed at encouraging young doctors to work in rural areas, officials said on Wednesday. “There is currently a lack of doctors in remote areas of the republic. This innovation will help attract young practitioners to rural areas,” Shailoobek Niyazov, Kyrgyz health minister, said in the capital, Bishkek. According to the Kyrgyz health ministry, the new initiative would help tackle the issue by providing extra money to young doctors over a certain period in addition to their basic salary. Many medical faculty graduates do not want to work in rural areas due to low pay and poor living conditions. Kyrgyzstan’s statistics agency has reported that an average monthly salary in the former Soviet republic was around US $60 in 2005, while young doctors’ monthly salary is less than $30, sometimes even lower in rural areas. “A bank account will be opened for a young doctor who is ready to work in a rural area and every month between some $50 and $70 will be transferred to that account in addition to the doctor’s monthly salary,” Niyazov explained. The project is scheduled to kick off in September 2006, with participants only able to access their extra remuneration after having completed three years of service, the national news agency, Kabar, reported. Currently looking for external support, the health ministry said that several international donor organisations, including the World Bank, the UK Department for International Development (DfID), the Swiss government and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), had expressed interest in the new programme and could provide some $52 million in assistance for five years for its implementation. Efforts to mobilise government support for the drive are also under way, Ainura Ibraimova, deputy health minister, said. “The health ministry is not able to resolve the issue of lack of doctors on its own. The local authorities need to make their contribution as well,” she lamented. Meanwhile, the new initiative has already received a warm welcome from some medical students and doctors. “I am originally from a village in [the northeastern] Isyk-Kul province and [am intending] to work in a village within this programme. As long as I work, the money would accumulate in the account and after three to four years it would make a considerable sum. This is a very good project,” Azamat Duishekeev, a student at the Kyrgyz Medical Academy, said. Nurdin Kaparov, a surgeon from Tokmak, a town near the capital, said the young doctor’s deposit project would help resolve many health problems in rural areas. “Nowadays not only in villages, even in many district capitals, there are no doctors. Many of them are leaving for Bishkek and further to Russia,” he claimed. “That’s because local health bodies in Russia’s peripheries offer jobs to our doctors, with salaries starting from $400 to $500 and free accommodation. I know a lot of my colleagues who have already left and many others are planning to do so as well,” the doctor added.