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| February 21, 2002 | Thursday | Zilhaj 8, 1422 |
Pakistan may lose overseas job opportunities
ISLAMABAD, Feb 20: Pakistan is likely to lose thousands of overseas employment opportunities for Pakistani medical staff such as consultants, paramedics and nurses in countries like the US due to poor handling of the health and labour ministries, an official source said.
He said various recruiting agencies in the US, Europe and Singapore, through Pakistani missions abroad, had expressed willingness of hiring qualified nurses/nursing assistants and other paramedical staff for their hospitals and specialist centres.
This was the first major demand from the US, as during the year 2001-2002, the OEC had received a demand of 500 consultants, 550 general doctors, 400 nurses and 220 paramedics. Similar, inquiries for employment of specialists, general doctors and nurses were also received from Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia and Libya which according to the source were under process.
The source said one of the employment firm M/s Deltec Total Solutions of the US had approached Pakistan’s embassy in Washington by placing a large demand of qualified nurses for hospitals in the US.
The source claimed that these firms were apparently keen to make arrangements for unlimited number of Pakistani qualified nurses for placement in different hospitals against lucrative terms of service.
Routed through the labour ministry, the demand was forwarded to the health ministry, which according to a source, had not yet responded to the opportunity. As a result, the labour ministry is still unaware of a possible decision of the health ministry for sending manpower abroad.
The labour ministry has suggested to the health ministry that it should play a ‘lead role’ and devise a comprehensive plan of action to assess the demand within the country and prepare for the upcoming employment opportunities in foreign countries.
The labour ministry has also communicated to the health ministry to allow the personnel, employed in government hospitals, to apply for the positions.
Meanwhile, when a senior official in the health ministry was approached, he commented that the information about the demand had already been disseminated to the four provinces which had yet to respond to the federal government about their assessment.
However, the official conceded that the health ministry had yet to take a decision on this issue keeping in view different factors, as a criteria had also been laid down with the demand. Under the criteria, the nursing staff must fulfil the requirements of the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools Certification (CGFNS), proficiency in English as a foreign language (Toefl), nursing diploma and at least 12 years of schooling (intermediate level).
Without the CGFNS certification and Toefl, it was not possible for any nurse to get herself or himself registered or appear in the national council licence examination and apply for an occupational visa before proceeding to Europe or the US.
The source said according to an assessment of the Overseas Employment Commission (OEC), not even one per cent of the existing workforce in the field of nursing was technically qualified to be considered for employment in the US, Europe or other countries with modern infrastructure in the health sector.
Out of 30,000 nurses in the public as well as private sector, none of the nurses qualified the CGFNS despite the fact that several health institutions were functioning in the country like the Health Services Academy in the federal capital, five full-fledged nursing colleges at Islamabad, Karachi, Peshawar, Hyderabad and Lahore with 79 training schools and 109 midwifery/LHV orientation centres.
Getting unnerved due to time constraints, the OEC has also approached Health Minister Dr Abdul Malik Kasi with a suggestion to provide the CGFNS and Toefl competence to the nurses as part of their overall education and training through revision of the existing professional courses with the help of experts and professionals in the private sector.
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