EXECUTIVE CHANGE : Samoa General Practitioners Association outgoing president Leniu Dr. Asaua Fa’asino (left) welcomes her successor Leausa Dr. Take Naseri .
By Staff Writer
Doctors in private practice are continuing to build on longstanding hopes to set up a College of General Practitioners in Samoa.
The focus is to keep improving on the professional standards for doctors providing private service in the general community.
The Samoa Association of General Practitioners injected more fuel for higher practicing benchmarks in their medical services at its recent Annual General Meeting.
Newly elected Association President , Leausa Dr. Take Naseri, is taking over the charge from former office holder, Leniu Dr. Asaua Fa’asino.
Leausa is joined by Vice President, Lolofie Dr. Toloa Enosa, and Secretary, Su’a Dr. Sarah Brown-Ah Kau in the new Association executive.
“To qualify for private practice, doctors are required to have served for 5 years with postgraduate credits,” Leausa underlined the current requirement for membership.
“We are looking to be more stringent with new entry criteria for doctors to qualify for membership,” the new Association President declared.
Plans for a College includes formal recognition of local postgraduate study credits by an overseas medical university, which is already being looked into.
Leausa is keen to set up accreditation for Association membership that concentrates only on skills from post graduate learning acquired inside Samoa.
“The idea is to counter our brain drain problem with many of our doctors moving off island to practice overseas.”
A Ministry of Health recent count showed 120 doctors currently working in Samoa.
The World Health Organisation believes, however, Samoa needs 200 doctors.
The ideal ratio is one doctor to 1,000 people, for the population size of Samoa.
