Lubango – At least 2,522 Angolan doctors are being specialized in various fields all over the country, as part of the action to improve medical assistance to the population and reduce the demand for health services abroad.
According to the Health minister, Silvia Lutukuta, who was speaking at the 30th Health Advisory Council, some 535 doctors are being trained in family medicine in municipalities.
The remaining 1,987 are doing 37 priority specialties, the minister said, adding that most of them are expected to secure primary health care, such as obstetrics, gynaecology, paediatrics, general surgery, orthopaedics, anaesthesia, and public health.
Silvia Lutukuta informed that in the last two years, the Health Ministry has been conducting specialized training programme for post-medics, which enabled the country to have 415 new specialists in instrumentation, anaesthesia and resuscitation, intensive care, orthopaedics, nephrology, obstetrics, paediatrics, childcare, and midwifery specialization.
The Health minister stressed that investment in human resources is a priority to increase access to health services.
The workforce in the Health sector has grown from 65,294 professionals to 87,161 in the last two years increasing the number of doctors to 7,715.
Currently the country’s Health System and the Health Network comprise 2, 644 health units, being 15 national hospitals, 25 provincial hospitals, 45 general hospitals, 170 municipal hospitals, 442 health centres, 67 mother-child centres, 1,880 health posts and 37 other infrastructures.