Abstract
There is major maldistribution of physicians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). While 70% of Congolese live in rural areas, relatively few doctors practice there. Of the 25 medical schools in the DRC (14 public and 11 private) only one private medical school is located in a rural area. The purpose of this article was to analyse and compare the graduates of an urban- and a rural-located university in DRC. The 6 first classes of the Catholic University of Graben (UCG) Medical School at Butembo (rural) and Université Evangélique en Afrique (UEA) at Bukavu (urban) (43 and 120 graduates, respectively) were compared according to their rural or urban employment, among other variables. In total, 97.7% of graduates from the rural-located medical school were employed in the province where they trained, the majority (81.4%) in rural areas. In contrast, 40.0% of graduates from the urban-located school were employed in the province where they trained, with 23.7% working in a rural area. Over 55% of all graduates worked 78 km of their training medical school. Only 2.5% of the rural-school graduates entered residency programs, compared with 15.2% for urban-school graduates. The results support the policy of establishing medical schools in rural areas, and also provide indications of approaches likely to increase the number and expertise of rural-located physicians.
Highlights
There is major maldistribution of physicians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
Two recently established private medical schools located in east DRC (Fig1) were studied: the rural Catholic University of Graben (UCG) and the urban located Université Evangélique en Afrique (UEA)
At the urban UEA medical school, a total of 120 doctors graduated over the 6 classes, representing an annual average of 20 doctors but only 5.7% of all matriculated students
Summary
There is major maldistribution of physicians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Results: In total, 97.7% of graduates from the rural-located medical school were employed in the province where they trained, the majority (81.4%) in rural areas. 40.0% of graduates from the urban-located school were employed in the province where they trained, with 23.7% working in a rural area. In 1989 the government authorized the establishment of additional medical schools throughout the country, partially to address the need for physicians in rural areas. This policy allowed for private orgainisations to develop medical schools, especially religious organizations in rural areas. The Catholic University of Graben (UCG) Medical School at Butembo was one of the first rural medical schools established in the DRC
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