Minister Sharma: Nepali Healthcare Professionals Seek Opportunities Abroad

Health and Population Minister Dr. Sudha Sharma Gautam stated that the current situation in Nepal requires domestically produced human resources to work abroad. 

Speaking at an event in Kathmandu on Friday, she noted that the government has been unable to create sufficient posts within the Nepal government's service for the skilled workforce, leading them to seek employment elsewhere.

She said, "The current strategy includes easy and equal access to mental health services, and secondly, managing resources and human resources. The number of people with knowledge about mental health has increased compared to before. 

Even if nothing else, we are producing 10 to 12 psychiatrists annually. We have not been able to create posts within the government service. Since the produced workforce is going to work abroad, we must be able to manage these posts."

She also mentioned that the ministry is moving forward by strengthening training, medicine, counselling services, and health institutions, and is expanding mental health services.

She elaborated, "From the perspective of the Ministry of Health, our constitution talks about bringing citizens into the fold of basic healthcare access. For this, we have delivered mental health medicines to the local levels as well. 

There may be shortcomings somewhere, but we now need to look from east to west. While moving forward, the goal is to further strengthen training, medicine, counselling services, and our health institutions, and to expand mental health services, and we are working in that direction."

She also suggested that the dissatisfactions and angers prevalent in society are all mental health issues, and their "explosion" has been evident for some time now.