Number of doctors to double by 2017

By Fred Ndoli (www.newtimes.co.rw)
March 19, 2011

KIGALI -The Ministry of Health wants to have at least 692 more medical doctors by 2017 to bridge the gap of qualified medics in the country.Currently there are 725 medical doctors in the field.

This was announced, yesterday, by Health Minister, Dr Richard Sezibera, during a meeting with officials of Kigali Health Institute after touring the institute’s skills laboratory which, he said, is a great success.

Skills lab methodology is meant to develop health personnel and was adopted as a strategy to improve and strengthen the level of clinical skills of medics.

Sezibera said that government will embark on improving the level of health professionals through the integration of skills training into a competence-based and student- centred curriculum.

According to the ministry, the ratio of doctors to patients is still very low.

In order to improve the sector, Sezibera said there will be a change in the way the human resource is handled.

“There is a wrong perception that medical lecturers cannot practice medicine, yet it is possible for a teacher to treat patients,” said Sezibera.

“We are going to begin assessing how teachers can practice medicine and how doctors can teach other medical students basing on performance contracts.”

The new system, according to Sezibera, will allow qualified physicians to operate in the two fields (medical practice and teaching) depending on their availability.

“We also have many medics with PHDs but they cannot teach, this should be changed,” Sezibera added.