They’re cheap, experienced: Forau

Evan Wasuka
Faced with a shortage of doctors, the Solomon Islands government has entered a health treaty with one of the world’s last remaining communist states to plug its shortfall of doctors.

The Cuban doctors are to help lighten the load that according to the Health Ministry stands at 10,000 patients to one doctor in the Solomon Islands.

Cuba, on the other hand, says Foreign Affairs Minister Patterson Oti has the second highest doctor to patient ratio in the world, behind Italy.

As part of the deal brokered by Oti, Solomon Islands will see 10 Cuban doctors arrive in May, along with 50 medical scholarships for Solomon Islands students to study in Cuba’s capital, Havana.

Oti says this is part of developing South-South cooperation between developing countries and will fall into place once Solomon Islands’ diplomat in New York, presents his credentials in Havana.

Permanent secretary for health Dr George Malefoasi says the first step towards servicing the country’s health needs would be to meet his ministry’s manpower needs.

His ministry has the highest number of vacancies at 196 as listed in the government’s 2007 Budget documents.

At Solomon Islands’ largest hospital, the National Referral Hospital in Honiara, there are 11 vacancies for doctors and 20 more in other provinces.

The Solomon Islands government had originally requested 40 doctors but only 10 were immediately available, the rest says Oti will follow within the year.

Health Minister Clay Forau said the hiring of Cuban doctors is cheaper and more cost effective for the government than recruiting doctors from the international market.

The most expensive item for the government will be the cost of airfares, he says.

The government will fork out US$300 per month for the doctors’ allowance while the Cuban government will pay for their salaries.

Forau said there will be very little differences in the pay package of Cuban doctors and their local counterparts who are currently on S$170,000 per annum while their expatriate counterparts are on S$180,000 for the first year, including their airfare costs.

While another alternative is to employ single doctors from the international market, it will according to the ministry of health, cost taxpayers close to S$400,000 per year.

The health minister says the cost for the whole recruitment process has been catered for in the 2007 Budget.

“Cuban doctors have experiences in tropical diseases like malaria,” which according to the WHO figures infected 90,000 in 2003.

Having Cuban doctors on the ground will be enable local doctors working alongside them to “pick up on their experience and advise”, says Forau.

“With these kinds of package arrangements it has the advantage of always having a supply,” without the expense of recruiting in the international market, says Health Permanent Secretary Dr George Malefoasi.,

The health agreement with Cuba has been in the making since 2000, says Oti, who is quick to dismiss it as a reaction to the ongoing diplomatic spat between Solomon Islands and its Pacific neigbour Australia.

“It’s not a sudden reaction to what has been going on here,” says Oti.

He says the treaty came to life when the Solomon Islands government delegation met up with Cuban diplomats at the United Nations General Assembly in New York last year.

Solomon Islands has had similar arrangements with other countries in the past. including Israel. But the Cuban deal, Oti says is on a larger scale.

As for the practicalities of the arrangement, the recruitment and selection process will be done through the Solomon Islands Public Service.

The challenge, says Malefoasi, is to ensure doctors are accredited and suitably qualified for the local situation.

As for the long-term solution to the country’s doctors shortage, the government says the scholarships and the training of doctors will go towards filling the gap in healthcare.

With Solomon Islands medical students already into their academic year and training at the regional Fiji School of Medicine, ten students, who had missed out on medical scholarship because of lack of space will be the Solomon Islands first medical students to Havana in September.

The good thing about these scholarships says the Health Minister is that the government will only pay for their airfares while the rest of the costs will be borne by Cuba.

Although there have been some reservations raised about the possible problems in communication, in the country’s populated province, Malaita, the director of nurses and acting director at the Kilufi Hospital says any help would be greatly appreciated.

At the hospital which provides health service to Malaita’s 122,620 people, there are only three doctors servicing the hospital.

“We don’t have an anesthetist so any major surgery is referred to the National Referral Hospital (in Honiara),” said Mark Maeli’au.

Most of the work in the hospital is being carried out by nurses and nurse aids with countless requests for new doctors already made to the national headquarters.

Unfortunately he says, most doctors prefer to work in Honiara and a provincial posting is not attractive.