24 Nov 2003

Fiji recruits doctors from India

4:52 pm on 24 November 2003

The director of health for the Northern Division in Fiji says the recruitment of 11 doctors from India is necessary because there are not enough trained personnel locally.

The Health minister, Solomone Naivalu, announced the recruitments in parliament last week.

Dr Ami Chandra says four of the recruits will work in Labasa, which has been affected by staff shortages in recent times.

Dr Chandra says until there are enough trained people in Fiji the health sector will continue to recruit from overseas.

He says the fact that the doctors are from India will give them a head-start.

"The language barrier is removed because more than half the population can speak the language that they speak that's Hindi and the other thing is that we've found them to be quite skillful and quite good at their job."

Dr Ami Chandra.

This is the third overseas recruitment drive by the health ministry, the previous two being in India and the Philippines.