Africa's Deadly Brain Drain - Malawi

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journeymanpictures | January 02, 2008

Nov 2007 Africa is in the grip of a medical crisis because its doctors are be...

journeymanpictures | January 02, 2008

Nov 2007
Africa is in the grip of a medical crisis because its doctors are being lured away by lucrative jobs in Europe. Malawi now only has one doctor for every 50,000 people.

"We are working under very difficult conditions. It's like we are in a war", laments Robert Lapyam Ayella, the only doctor at Mulanje District Hospital. As he goes from bed to bed, patients and staff clamour for his attention. But there are too many people for him to see and he lacks the proper drugs and equipment to treat them. "You reach a point of frustration and just say 'what am I doing here?'" In some Malawian hospitals, clinical officers without the proper training are working as doctors or surgeons. "I usually work 24 hour shifts in the emergency department", states clinical officer Stanley Chimabaui. Malawi's few remaining health workers also have to battle an AIDS pandemic. And the problem looks set to get worse. 25% of the country's health staff are expected to die of HIV/AIDS in the next decade. Facing these problems, it's not surprising entire medical classes decide to emigrate to the West, where they can earn 300 -- 400 times more. As one expat Malawian doctor states: "I earn a good wage in England. Why should I go back to Malawi to suffer?"

Produced by SBS/Dateline
Distributed by Journeyman Pictures

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Highest Rated Comments

  • God bless him and strengthen him to keep doing what he is doing!

  • that volunteer dr is a saint

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All Comments (91)

  • the doctors that leave malawi are not really touched by the suffering of the patients. said a malawi doctor , and most leave, I thought most doctors had learnt the job to help others, seems I was wrong.

  • @enyawix what a dumb thing to say. you don't know of such things as blood diamonds or gold, silver, or oil. just because we have a corrupt governments and westerns governments who can gladly take the money without thinking twice and fill their lockers with blood money and turn their blind eyes. in fact alot of western soceity got rich from looting places like africa, the americas, and asia. so please speak intelligently.

  • thanks - excellent expose of the complex factors to this desperate situation.

    but lets not blame personalities, this is a structural issue.

  • 10:41

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  • This is why Africa will always be as it is, they all want whats best for themselves and not whats best for everyone(africans), like our kings back in the day, that give us away to the white world for salt and suger just for himself..and look what is going on now with blacks all over world being mistreated..staying home and helping more than a hundred people is pricless..no money can amount to that...NOTE FOR EVERYDAY YOU STAY IN THE UK, YOU COULD HAVE SAVED MANY OF YOUR COUNTRY PEOPLE..

  • I think that leaving all of your native people behind and not staying to seek solutions with the government is selfish.  That would be the very reason why African nations do not properly develop in the next ten years. Everyone is giving up before the fight begins just for money. The help that they can give to their own people are greater than they can give abroad.

  • @portugalreis Though the strong destroy us all with the resource consumption. Global economy is based on growth ... growth after growth ... but sadly, the planet's resources only diminish. You like the idea of survival of the fittest, but now it's survival of the fattest to whom nothing is enough.

  • People in africa can not contribute to the global economy. The people in africa are mostly stupid because all the good blood lines get out of africa first chance.

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