Health makes U-turn on foreign nurses

The health ministry has found itself with egg on its face after it issued a circular last year announcing that employment contracts of foreign nurses would not be renewed in a bid to accommodate Namibian graduates.

In August, former health permanent secretary Andreas Mwoombola announced that the ministry would not extend the contracts of foreign health professionals until Namibian graduates were accommodated.

Health minister Bernard Haufiku yesterday said the approach was wrong and created confusion and uncertainty.

“A day after this circular was sent out I was approached by the American embassy who, through their PEPfar programme, have many nurses placed around the world including Namibia,” he said.

Haufiku admitted that this “blanket statement” also did not honour the stipulations of an agreement between Namibia and Kenya.

After a meeting with Kenyan high commissioner Isaac Njenga, a committee was formed comprising ministry and embassy staff to ensure a smooth transition between Kenyan and Namibian nurses.

“We would like to reiterate that the two parties, I and the Kenyan high commissioner, Isaac Njenga, are committed to the implementation of the existing MoU and to follow the laid-down procedures and processes,” said Haufiku.

To date he has only been approached by the Kenyan high commission and the American embassy, but the minister urged other countries to appeal to him if they felt offended.

“It is a process. We cannot just abruptly terminate the contract of a person. Practically what this means is that some of the nurses who received notices of termination of their contract and the process was not duly conducted we pull back. Fortunately there are not so many of them. They are probably fewer than ten. So we will pull back and say you can continue to work as normal and when notice is given it will be done according to the processes and procedures in the MoU,” he said.

Haufiku added that terminating the contracts would be done on a case-by-case basis in order to make sure a Namibian nurse was available to replace the expatriate nurse.

He emphasised that Namibia was still committed to working with foreign nurses.

“The process must be done in the most humane way so that we don't cause unnecessary fear and anxiety and also a bad name for the country that we just dump people as if they are used material. We don't want that,” said Haufiku.

At a media briefing yesterday, the Kenyan high commissioner called on the ministry to honour the stipulations of the agreement signed in 2009.

He also urged the ministry to find a “humane and procedural” way to deal with the matter.

“These nurses have been here for many years. They have come to assist and transfer skills and we understand it is not a permanent arrangement. But it has now occurred that there is a blanket statement or misinformation which has caused anxiety,” Njenga said.

Haufiku further pointed out that Namibia was still short of health professionals and needed funding to implement new health solutions and deliver health services.

“However, alternative measures are in place to fill the critical gaps such as compensatory reduction of non-critical vacant posts to accommodate essential services positions,” he said.

JEMIMA BEUKES