Minding the gap: Medical Licentiates in Zambia
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- For the past 12 years, SolidarMed’s team in Zambia have been supporting the clinical education of Medical Licentiates (also called physician associates), and to help these clinicians become established in Zambia’s health service. Medical Licentiates work alongside, and often replace physicians in some of Zambia’s most remote locations. Trained to undertake life-saving obstetric surgical procedures, Medical Licentiates deliver key interventions that help to reduce child and maternal morbidity and mortality. Our documentary introduces the Medical Licentiate cadre, the career, and the impact they are having on the Zambian population, as well as within the health service itself. This sensitive documentary also provides and honest account of the key challenges of the Medical Licentiate career in Zambia. Our work in supporting Medical Licentiates is done in close collaboration with our generous funders at the Lichtenstein Development Service.
When will paid internship be introduced to medical licentiate practitioners?
The challenge with the ML program has been the issue of upgrading....has a diploma clinical officer going for ML is locking your career pathway and the wages or salries is something undesirable compared to the work in question alot has to be done not just theoretical.
Dear Wiseman,
You are indeed correct. There are still challenges that need to be addressed on the ML programme, not least of which is establishing the salary scale of MLs (as you point out), and helping to drive an appropriate policy agenda to ensure that they are appropriately compensated in alignment with the scale.
At present the Ministy of Health of Zambia's new government is focusing on addressing the critical health worker shortage, and their recent drive that saw over 11000 clinicians and support staff be recruited into the service has been very well received.
That said, the finer detail of the ML career trajectory in Zambia still has to be addressed and this is not lost on local and international partners. SolidarMed and it's partners are still committed to advocating for the ML programme and engage in the necessary evidence generation that will help to inform and drive policies to address the kinds of issues you raise.
Thanks you for your input on this!
Regards
Dr Petros Andreadis
SolidarMed Zambia Technical Adviser
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