What Are Some Medical Jobs in Cambodia?

According to the Asian Development Bank, Cambodians are more likely to flee public health care workers, when they get sick, than they are to seek advice or treatment. They live on average only 57 years, less than either their Thai or Vietnamese neighbors. They also have more babies are more likely to die while giving birth, and contract and die more often from malaria. These problems are largely due to the unfeasible costs of healthcare for most Cambodians. In 2004, the Cambodian government paid an average of just $2 per person, per year for healthcare, while the average costs of healthcare totaled over $33 per person, per year. While these numbers may seem quite low to citizens of the United States, for Cambodian families they are crippling. Fortunately, since 2004, the Cambodian government has been contracting health care services to Non-Governmental Organizations, or NGO's, giving Cambodians easier access to care.

Work with an NGO

• Most Cambodian healthcare is now administered through Non Governmental Organizations. These NGO's can range in size from complete, fully operational hospitals to tiny clinics that specialize in treating one problem. The Angkor Hospital for Children is a teaching hospital in Siem Reap. This hospital provides outpatient, inpatient, acute, emergency, surgical, low-acuity, dental, and ophthalmologic care. It has treated over half a million children since 1999, and sees three to four hundred patients every day. If you are interested in working at a smaller, more specialized clinic, you could look into an NGO like the Cambodian Acid Survivors Charity. This organization provides treatment only to women and girls who have been victimized by acid attacks.

Join a short-term project

• Cambodia also welcomes organizations that send teams of medical professionals in for short term projects, either in response to emergencies or to address certain widespread medical problems that local medical professionals are not able to handle. Doctors Without Borders (Medicins Sans Frontiers) one group that regularly sends teams of doctors, nurses, and medical professionals into Cambodia. They often respond to viral outbreaks and epidemics, such as malaria, Dengue fever, and tuberculosis. They also have staff in the field full-time to treat HIV and AIDS patients. Other organizations, such as The Smile Train, regularly send in teams of medical professionals to perform surgery on children with cleft palates.

Work for a private hospital

• Cambodia also has a number of hospitals and medical establishments that specialize in treating foreigners. These establishments exist to provide medical services to tourists, embassy staff, and individuals working for international companies and their families. These facilities boast the same standards one would find in a hospital in the United States. International SOS is a company that has health care facilities in Cambodia (as well as a number of other poor countries) that treat people living and working abroad who are concerned about the safety of local medical services.