By Peter Apps LONDON, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Liberian Health Minister Walter Gwenigale says he is thankful Western donors are willing to fund drugs, vehicles and fuel -- but what he really wants is enough money to pay his doctors not to quit. Most of Liberia's medical staff fled to Europe or the United States during its civil war, and Gwenigale says there are now only 102 doctors in a country of just over 3 million people. Not all doctors are Liberian, not all are practising and almost all are in the capital rather than the more deprived countryside counties. "We have tremendous work to do in the country but we don't have the staff and we don't have the money to make them come back," Gwenigale told Reuters in a telephone interview late on Thursday during a visit to London. "They want us to pay them higher salaries because they have been away, and we don't have the money. We have to work hard to keep the people we have." Medical salaries in Liberia can be around $100 a month, aid workers say -- not nearly enough to attract staff back. Like many of Africa's most fragile states, Liberia is heavily dependent on outside aid as it tries to rebuild itself as a democratic country and move towards the United Nations "millennium development goals" of reducing poverty and mortality on a government budget of $5 per person. Life expectancy is 42 and only 50 percent of births are attended by qualified staff, U.N. figures say. Donors were willing to fund all manner of projects and equipment, Gwenigale said, but flatly refused the one thing the former county hospital doctor really felt the health system needed. "I wish they would give me the money to keep my people," he said after a medical conference hosted in London by British aid agency Merlin. "There are donors who are willing to give us money for drugs and vehicles and fuel but they are not willing to give us the money to top up the salaries. They will fund projects but not human resources. That is the tragedy," he said. Worse still, some of the doctors are leaving to work in those same donor countries, further starving Liberia of the resources it needs as it tries to tackle malaria and a rising HIV infection rate. "We appreciate the help in giving the money for malaria and AIDS and tuberculosis," he said. "But if you don't give me the money to hire people to do the work ... it is really difficult for me."
