The Namibia Institute of Pathology (NIP) is taking steps to address the country’s shortage of qualified pathologists by partnering with the University of Namibia’s (UNAM) school of medicine to localise specialised training.
Currently, Namibia relies heavily on foreign pathologists, as fewer than 10 of the country’s practicing specialists are Namibians. The partnership aims to produce more local experts to meet growing healthcare demands.
“The plan at NIP is to partner with the University of Namibia’s medical school to explore ways to localise pathologist training, allowing us to produce specialists more efficiently rather than waiting for years to see results. As we launch this programme, we’ll need significant resources and will seek additional funding to ensure its success. Our goal is to localise both training and specialisation, ultimately building capacity within the country,” said NIP CEO Kapena Tjombonde.
The institution spends about N$4 million to N$5 million per person on scholarships for specialisation.
“We send qualified medical practitioners to specialise in pathology. It’s a very scarce resource that we don’t have in our country and one scholarship cost NIP about N$4.5 million. It’s a very expensive and complex operation that we have,” she said.
According to NIP’s Chief Operations Officer, Vincent Nowaseb, the skills gap is also a contributing factor to the localisation of tests such as paternity tests, another factor is outdated equipment.
However, the institute plans to modernise its equipment and establish centres of excellence to improve the country’s ability to conduct advanced medical tests locally.
This is part of a broader effort to reduce the number of tests sent to South Africa, which currently slows down diagnostic processes.
“The other issue is the skill gap that was mentioned—some of these tests require specific expertise that we currently lack. We’re working on either acquiring the necessary skills or partnering with strategic alliances to perform these tests. This is definitely in progress, and with the launch of our Centres of Excellence next year, we aim to localise at least 86% of our tests,” he said.
NIP operates 36 laboratories across the country, providing medical laboratory service to individual customers, health care institutions, medical doctors, and pathology service users.
