Govt recruits 124 junior doctors
Ministry of Health (MoH) has finally offered internship to 124 newly-qualified medical doctors whose recruitment was delayed due to financial constraints, both the ministry and the junior doctors have confirmed in separate interviews.
The delay put the public health sector at risk of losing the doctors to private health facilities both within and outside Malawi as the Medical Council of Malawi (MCM) could not certify and register them without first undergoing an 18-month internship at either Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) or Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH).
However, one of the doctors who graduated from College of Medicine in May this year, Joseph Mkandawire, yesterday said the doctors got offer letters from the director of clinical services in the MoH. He said some will start their internship at the end of this week while most will start by December.
“For now, I know that those of us who studied at College of Medicine have received offer letters, but one of my colleagues, who studied abroad, has also signed her contract and I am assuming even those have received the offer letters.
“We are happy now and we commend government for the move,” said Mkandawire.
MoH spokesperson Adrian Chikumbe said government sourced funding to allow it recruit the medical doctors by December 1 2016.
He said the interns will be placed on government’s payroll and their salaries will be in tandem with government’s Grade I (PO).
The Nation has since established that the interns have been offered K2 588 964 annual salary which is K215 747 per month, excluding the Sector Wide Approach (SWAp) allowance and other allowances. n
