Experts to deliberate solutions to ‘brain drain' in East Africa's healthcare industry

Nairobi, Kenya: The migration of health workers from countries of East Africa presents a critical challenge to the provision of healthcare. It is a growing concern that urgently needs to be addressed. The Healthcare Management Conference at Medic East Africa, supported by the Kenyan Medical Association, will provide 10 CPD points for all healthcare professionals who attend. The conference will feature some of East Africa’s prominent figures in the healthcare industry and further discuss the issue of ‘brain drain’ in East Africa.

Medic East Africa is the largest healthcare event in the East Africa region and will take place from 1-3 September 2015 at the Oshwal Centre, Nairobi, Kenya. The event will showcase the very latest medical breakthroughs and technological developments in healthcare, and feature the leaders in the healthcare industry in Kenya and East Africa.

According to Dr James Mwanzia, Chief of Party Funzo Kenya, IntraHealth (USAID), “In order for East African countries to achieve Universal Health Coverage, we must ensure an adequate workforce in terms of their availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality. We must, therefore, seriously address the issue of migration of health workers.”

Currently, the retention rate of healthcare workers in East Africa is a lot less than the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations. The population ratio for all cadres is significant, and the emigration only worsens the situation.

“Certain retention strategies can be put in place to address the loss of medical talent such as scaling up the training of nurses and clinical officers, continually investing in staff recognition and motivation, improving human resources management policies, practices, governance, using salary survey results and recommendations to review their structures, staff motivation, retention, and teamwork, and institutionalizing staff exit feedback and acting on issues,” says Dr Mwanzia.

More than 250 healthcare and medical laboratory companies will showcase their products and services to more than 2,500 attendees during the three-day Medic East Africa exhibition. The exhibition will host leading healthcare companies such as Alvo Medical, Hill-Rom, Medel, Mindray, Olympus, and more.