The choice to no longer recruit nursing staff in a large part of Africa was announced by Radio-Canada and welcomed by several opposition parties. It has been two years since the Canadian province pursued an active policy to hire nurses abroad – including on the African continent – because its own nurses are deserting the public health system.
“Dead loss”
A “thoughtful, fair and equitable” decision, this is how Souriya Otmani, the Moroccan ambassador to Canada, welcomes Quebec’s decision to no longer recruit nurses in her country to meet the labor needs of hospitals Quebecois. A few months ago, the diplomat publicly described the departure of nursing staff to the Quebec province as a “dead loss”.
In two years, more than a thousand of them have left Africa and, in particular, countries like Cameroon and Ivory Coast. However, thirty-seven countries on the continent have a number of health professionals below the world average, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
WHO heard
Obviously, the Quebec government has listened to the WHO, which recommends protecting certain vulnerable health systems. The lack of nurses can, in fact, represent certain health risks for local populations. According to Radio-Canada, recruitment would however continue in the Gulf countries and Tunisia.
