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Pharmacy       Health Sciences       Highly Qualified Technicians

PHYSICIANS

The total number of physicians in activity is near 6000 divided up as follows (source: Ministry of public health, statistics established in 1995) :

• 45% are specialists;
• 46% practice in the private sector which is booming; the offer is still important in it, whereas the employment possibilities in the public sector are more and more limited.
• 40% practice in the coastal regions where the density (physician/number of inhabitants) is three or four times higher than the inside regions particularly in the north-west and center-west. These disparities are particularly clear concerning the specialists.

DENTISTS

The total number of dentists is 1050 (source: Ministry of health, statistics established in 1995). 75% practice in the private sector. Almost all of them are generalists; The majority of the specialists are teaching in the Faculty of Medicine of Monastir.

The coastal region and the district of Tunis are well served. The density is three or four times higher (1 dentist for 8500 inhabitants in Tunis, and 1 dentist for 30000 inhabitants in the center-west and in the south).

PHARMACISTS

According to the figures of the Ministry of Public Health (1995), 85% of the 1700 pharmacists practice in the private sector. The majority of them work in pharmacies. The pharmacies are geographically well spread and the imbalance between the regions is not so visible. It has to be said that, in addition to the criteria, common to all the health professions, the authorization of opening a pharmacy takes into account other elements, such as the ratio pharmacy / number of inhabitants (numerus clausus). If the possibilities of practicing in the pharmacies are limited, other prospects are offered to the pharmacists holding a specialist diploma: (biomedical analysis in laboratories, pharmaceutical industry).

HIGHLY QUALIFIED TECHNICIANS

Most of the highly qualified technicians, in all the specialities, practice in the public or semi-public sector. A minority have their own business (physiotherapists, midwives, dental prosthesists, orthopedists, nutritionists, opticians) or is employed in private clinics (physiotherapist, midwife …), in laboratories of biomedical analysis (biologist), and even in the industry and hotel business (hygienist, nutritionist, food technician).

The graduates in health sciences and techniques, practicing in structures linked to the Ministry of Public Health are 5572 (source Ministry of Public Health, December 1996), and are divided up as follows:

The exercise of free practice is regulated. Among the range of formed professionals, the holders of diplomas authorized to open a private business are: the graduates in human nutrition, in orthophony, physiotherapy, dental prosthesis, obstetric as well as the audioprosthesists, opticians, orthopedists and "psychomotriciens", specialities for which there are currently no possibilities of university training in Tunisia.

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