DUSHANBE, April 10, Asia-Plus  -- Tajikistan has more than 4,000 medical workers; vacancies, Ubaidullo Qurbonov, Rector of Tajik Medical University, remarked at a conference in Dushanbe on April 7.   

The conference was held on occasion of a World health Day, which is marked on April 7. 

“To date, there are more than 13,000 doctors in Tajikistan,” noted Professor Qurbonov, “Over the past four year, Tajik Medical University has turned out some 1,700 specialists.  However, according to statistics, only 23 percent of them have come to places of destination, while many young specialists have left the country seeking better employment opportunities.  

According to him, many graduates of Tajik Medical University are currently working in the Russian Federation, Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan and India, where they receive adequate payment for their labor.  

According to him, the main reason for shortage of medical personnel in the republic is low wages of medical workers and low level of training.  

For his part, Mr. Santino Severoni, head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Mission in Tajikistan, telling the conference noted that that problem was typical not only for Tajikistan.  According to him, many medical workers in Eastern Europe are leaving their countries seeking better employment opportunities.  

“Polls conducted among medical workers in Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and the Czech Republic in 2002 show that of those polled, 4%-10% were undoubtedly going to leave their countries for the West and other 25%-50% of the surveyed were maturing such plans for future,” said Mr. Severoni, “To have strong healthcare system we have to invest in education, improvement of conditions of work of medical personnel.”