Health recruiting 2 000 for Covid-19 battle

JEMIMA BEUKES

WINDHOEK



Health minister Kalumbi Shangula says the ministry has absorbed all unemployed graduate nurses in the country and will begin to look at other options to fill medical vacancies linked to the battle against Covid-19.

“We have approval for over 2 000 medical positions and we have recruited them. We can never say we are properly staffed; we still need manpower. The biggest problem we are facing now is the fact that there are no people to approach, and this means there are no free-roaming nurses out there which are unemployed,” he said.

Responding to calls for the ministry to rope in retired nurses, Shangula said they have not considered this avenue yet and do not want to create an expectation in this regard.

“If the situation continues, we will likely look into other options to see how to augment what we need. If we can no longer get additional manpower, we will look at those who are yet to graduate outside and inside the country,” he said.



Shortage

The Covid-19 pandemic has placed in the spotlight the shortage of medical personnel worldwide as well as the heavy burden on women as nursing personnel, the latest United Nations report on the pandemic said. Now more than ever, countries must invest in universal access to healthcare and urgently supply their health systems with increased capacity for testing, tracing and treatment, the report added.





This comes at a time when Namibia is faced with skyrocketing Covid-19 cases, including two deaths, for which the coronavirus test results were only known days later.



Existing buffers

The head of the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) in Namibia, Dr Eric Dziuban, said Covid-19 has highlighted both the strengths and weaknesses of the country.

“What we want is to build strong systems, not just for Covid-19, but for whenever the next crisis like this comes. Unfortunately, with Hepatitis E, we have seen it has lingered far too long in this country and we know need systems that can be adaptable for such outbreaks or a global pandemic,” he said.



Covid hampers goals

According to the Sustainable Development Goals Report 2020, due to Covid-19, an unprecedented health, economic and social crisis is threatening lives and livelihoods, making the achievement of these goals even more challenging.

This report said until the end of 2019 advances in many areas of health continued, but the rate of progress was not sufficient to meet most of Goal 3's targets.

“The Covid-19 pandemic is throwing progress even further off track. The rapid increase in Covid-19 cases is causing a significant loss of life and overwhelming many health systems. Essential health services and lifesaving interventions are being disrupted. People are unable or afraid to go to healthcare facilities to seek services such as check-ups, vaccinations and even urgent medical care. This could have potentially fatal consequences and threatens to reverse decades of improvements in health outcomes,” the report stated.

It added that Covid-related disruptions could cause a spike in illness and deaths from other communicable diseases and can lead to hundreds of thousands of additional deaths from HIV/Aids, malaria, tuberculosis and neglected tropical diseases.

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