Ethiopia plans to train extra 9000 doctors to fill gap left by migration

Ethiopia has set a target to increase the number of doctors practising in the country by 9000 in four years to fill an acute shortage of medical staff, government officials have said.

Ethiopia has just 1600 doctors serving a population of 83 million but needs a minimum of 8000, the government estimates.

“We face a very critical problem. We plan to train more doctors and increase their pay. It will be a massive training [of doctors] because we have a gap of over 80%,” said Mohammed Hussein, one of Ethiopia’s assistant health ministers, …