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.
Source: http://www.monitor.co.ug
