Health Sector staff shortages being addressed — Lawrence

The Public Health Ministry (MPH), plagued for over a decade by staff shortages in various capacities, is actively working to address the staff shortage situation that currently exists within the sector.

Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence has expressed grave concern that the MPH has never had a Human Resources (HR) Department, although the MPH “employs thousands of people.” In place of an HR Dept, there exists a “simple

personnel department.”

The MPH is now taking steps to put measures in place to establish a Human Resource (HR) Department. “Discussions are being facilitated to hire a consultant to set up (an) HR Department within the Ministry of Public Health,” Minister Lawrence is quoted by the Government Information Agency (GINA) as saying.

Vacancies have been advertised in the daily newspapers for positions in the Information Technology and Human Resources departments, and Minister Lawrence has said that although the process has been lengthy, interviews are currently being conducted in an effort to fill vacant positions in the sector.

The Public Service Commission (PSC) has in fact been conducting these interviews over the past two weeks. However, the strategy being employed is firstly to look internally to promote and reassign qualified persons, since “many persons who have the necessary skills and experience in certain fields are not working in (those fields),” Minister Lawrence explained.