DUSHANBE, April 22, 2009, Asia-Plus -- More than 1,500 family doctors have been trained in Tajikistan so far, while Tajikistan needs nearly 5,000 such specialists, Salomiddin Isupov, the head of the science and medical and pharmaceutical education directorate within the Ministry of Health (MoH), announced at a news conference in Dushanbe yesterday.

               According to him, 25 districts across the country are currently experiencing shortage of physicians, mainly oncologists, endocrinologists, narcologists and tuberculosis specialists, while Tajik Medical University turns out some 700 physicians per year.

               In the meantime, Health Minister Nusratullo Salimov told reporters that wages of medical workers would be raised by 30 percent within the next few months despite the ongoing financial crisis.  According to him, current average wage of physicians in the country is 111 somoni and current average wage of nurses is 83 somoni.

               Health care spending accounts for 6.4 percent of this year’s budget allocations.  The national budget for 2009 has earmarked 395.745 million somoni for the health sector.