Despite manpower development in the past few decades, large sections of the health sector suffer from grave staff shortages. Staff underpayment and mismanagement combined with the unavailability of equipment and essential commodities make it difficult, particularly for the MOH, to attract and retain health workers, especially in hard to reach areas. Salaries that the government pay to its civil servants, including health professionals are not commensurate with the cost of living. Remunerations are far lower than most other African countries.
Category | Number | Agents per citizen |
---|---|---|
Physicians | 3,116 | 20,143 |
Pharmacists | 331 | 189,623 |
Pharmacy Assistants | 270 | 232,464 |
Nurses (All Categories) | 43,021 | 1,459 |
Radio Technicians | 212 | 296,063 |
Lab. Technicians | 870 | 72,144 |
3. Community Extension Workers (Relais Communautaires)
Volunteers that live in the village and are chosen by the
people of this village to serve as the bridge between
households and health care services; therefore, the relais
communautaire agrees to devote part of his time to the
interests of the community and to work for sustainable development
goals in his village.
6. Pharmacists
The number of pharmacies has increased since 1998,
when it was determined that there were only 121 registered
pharmacists in the whole country. The majority of these
pharmacists get their supplies from local suppliers and
the remaining have international sources of supply.
Pharmacies are a main source of modern contraceptives
in the DRC, particularly for health zones and health
facilities that are not supported by local or international partners.
Strides made in the last decades in the domain of education have resulted in a large development increase in manpower. In 2006, about 11,000 physicians were registered by the Ordre National des Médecins (the DRC Medical Association), 3116 were on the government payroll, 2,000 were practicing in South Africa and many more had emigrated elsewhere. DRC has improved its ratio of health workers to population.
Doctors and nurses may get a cursory introduction to contraceptive service delivery as part of medical/nursing school, but it is not sufficient to provide them with sufficient knowledge and mastery for clinical service delivery.
The PNSR developed a 12-day training module that covers the basics of clinical service delivery. It includes six days of theory, followed by one day of practice on pelvic models, and five days of supervised practice with actual clients.
The PNSR has resisted efforts to reduce the length of training, given that the current course was shortened from a longer version given in the past. However, some NGOs have found it impractical to require staff to be away from other duties for 12 days and have shortened the content.
The PNSR considers it its mandate to do a training needs assessment at the provincial level each year. However, given the lack of budget for this purpose, no recent assessment has been done. PNSR reports that some FP groups at the provincial level may approach the branch offices to give their staff training in FP service delivery, without the central offices being informed. The training module is supposed to be available at the provincial level, and partners can have access to those modules where available.
Please see:
2008 PNSR Family Planning Service Provider Training Module