The Ministry of Health has raised alarms over the soaring number of unemployed trained health workers, with figures nearing 100,000.
Officials attribute the growing backlog in part to the unchecked proliferation of private health training institutions, which continue to admit students without aligning with the actual staffing demands of the healthcare system.
This concern was spotlighted after the Parliamentary Committee on Sanitation and Water Resources called on the Finance Ministry to urgently release funds for the deployment of over 2,000 Environmental Health Officer graduates.
These graduates, unposted since 2021, are seen as critical to combating the country’s deepening sanitation challenges.
The issue, however, extends beyond sanitation officers. Thousands of trained professionals across various health specialties have remained jobless for years, with many still waiting for posting since 2021.
Speaking in an interview on May 29, 2025, Health Ministry spokesperson Tony Goodman emphasized that while the Ministry aligns its training programs with national and regional health needs, many private institutions operate on a profit-driven model, enrolling large numbers without regard to workforce demand.
Goodman warned that attempting to absorb all unemployed professionals at once would be “suicidal” for the system. “We have nearly 100,000 trained individuals who’ve been waiting for five years. We simply can’t recruit them all in a single year,” he said.
He added that private schools, unlike the Ministry, are not guided by health sector needs. “They train in large volumes, graduate students, and then expect the Ministry to take responsibility for their employment,” he noted.
The Ministry continues to face pressure to address both the health worker unemployment crisis and the growing strain on public health infrastructure.
