Medical facilities in Tajikistan are experiencing an acute shortage of family doctors and middle-level family healthcare workers, Deputy Minister of Health and Social Protection of the Population, Ms. Saida Umarzoda, remarked at a news conference in Dushanbe on January 11. 

According to her, 4,154 family physicians (77.7 percent) and 6,652 middle-level family healthcare workers (62.3 percent) now work with primary health care facilities in the country.

“Tajikistan now has 1,170 family physician vacancies and 4,015 middle-level family healthcare worker vacancies,” the deputy minister noted.  

Family medicine (FM), formerly family practice (FP), is a specialty devoted to comprehensive health care for people of all ages; the specialist is named a family physician or family doctor.

In all, 17,000 physicians of various specialties and 45,880 middle-level healthcare workers now work with medical facilities in Tajikistan, Umarzoda added.