Only 40 Cuban doctors ready for Uganda jobs, says minister

Kampala- The Ministry of Health has said it is waiting for Cabinet approval to import 40 specialised doctors from Cuba out of the initial 200 expected.

The new arrivals will be sent to rural parts of the country that Ugandan doctors allegedly shun.
In an interview yesterday, Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said the importation of the doctors is a collaboration between Uganda and Cuba and that the arrangement has been misrepresented and blown out of proportion.

Uganda, she said, is in urgent need of specialists to handle patients who present with severe complications in remote areas where the government has failed to attract and retain indigenous professionals.

“Definitely, there are places where we have had a challenge of attracting and retaining Ugandan doctors because they lack social services such as schools amd ICT for research but the Cubans are willing to go there,” she said, adding that the expatriates will earn like their Ugandan counterparts.

New strategy
Asked whether government has also addressed the challenges of equipment and conducive working environment, Ms Aceng said they have designed a new strategy and policy for regionalised emergency services where government is working with the private sector to ensure that healthcare services are available to every citizen.

“We are aware of the staffing challenges and we are enhancing salaries beginning next financial year so that we start massive recruitment to fill in the gaps, government has a comprehensive plan to avail equipment in regional referral hospitals,” she said.

This proclamation flies in the face of instructions by the Ministry of Finance to government ministries, departments and agencies not to recruit new staff because the money from the public purse is only available for enhancement of salaries of existing public service employees, not new staff.

In December last year, this newspaper broke the story of government’s plan to import 200 Cuban doctors, attracting strong criticism from a cross-section of the population, including the medical fraternity.

While commissioning a specialised ambulance for persons with disabilities at City Square yesterday, the minister said the government is strengthening its collaboration with the private sector in provision of public services.
According to Mr Gouda Kishore, the chairman Norvik Group, they fly in super-specialised doctors from different parts of the world to conduct complicated surgeries and other forms of treatment.

This, he said, reduces the costs incurred by patients for overseas treatment. India is the main destination for Ugandans seeking advanced medical services.

The government has transformed a part of Mulago National Referral Hospital into a super-specialised unit, without a budget line for new staff, and the facility’s planned operation later this year coincides with importation of Cuban specialists.

READ:

How deal to import Cuban doctors began

On Tuesday, the President said his decision to import the doctors was to replace their Ugandan counterparts who he said were causing crises in hospitals through strikes

Norvik Hospital yesterday organised a free health camp to celebrate Mothers’ Day and launch a specialised ambulance for persons with disabilities and the elderly.

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