There is a severe shortage of trained health staff in rural Africa. We try to solve this issue by using doctors and non-physician clinicians (NPC). A recent problem we have seen in south Ethiopia is that these two categories of health personnel do not collaborate.
As non-physician clinicians (NPC) take over doing surgical tasks, the doctors withdraw from this important part of the work. General practitioners work on internal medicine and paediatrics, leaving surgery and obstetrics to NPC. In one hospital we have also seen the physician, who has only one year of clinical experience, leave the hospital when the non-physician clinician (NPC) started work.
This is a trend that worries us, and we need to find mechanisms to promote the collaboration between the two professions.
Any suggestions to solve this unhealthy competition?