He said: “The exam was taken by 34 medical doctors and those with the best marks will be appointed in Karenni State.”

Previously, medical doctors who were assigned to work at clinics and hospitals in many districts and townships would not turn up, meaning that there were no medical doctors in the majority of townships.

It is hoped that the present recruitment programme will solve that problem.

The position of township health officer, the doctor who oversees the other doctors in a township, has been vacant in De Maw So Township since December 2013 according to U Soereh, a representative of the People’s Parliament of De Maw So Township.

He raised the problem as a question in the parliament in July 2014 and the relevant ministry gave him a reply saying that a health officer had already been appointed for De Maw So Township and that one would be appointed for Daw-Thama-Gyi District in August 2014.

But, the doctor who was appointed to work at De Maw So Township has not yet turned up and currently there is only one assistant doctor working there according to local residents.

U Soereh said: “We do not have a health officer in De Maw So Township which is why we made a proposal calling for a new one. Even though one has been appointed he has not turned up yet, so now we are investigating why. If he had resigned or quit we could appoint a new one, but at the moment there is officially no vacancy so it is difficult to appoint another one.”

According to the constitution, each township should have one township health office or township medical doctor and under them there should be four assistant doctors. Many Karenni State townships have insufficient numbers of doctors.

When Kantarawaddy went to the state government office to ask questions about the appointment of doctors ministers could not answer their questions because they were in a meeting according to an official.        

Translated by Aung Myat Soe English version written by Mark Inkey for BNI