The Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Ummy Mwalimu speaking at a conference in Dodoma (file photo). Photo: Edwin Mjwahuzi/The Citizen
By Valentine Oforo
Dodoma
— As the government yesterday announced the immediate hiring of 258
doctors among those who were to be sent to Kenya, the key question of
where the recruitment budget came from remains unanswered.
The Minister for
Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Ms Ummy
Mwalimu, said for sometime now the government has failed to employ
medical doctors because of lack of funds and even with this recruitment
it was President John Magufuli who knew where the funds would come from.
Addressing a press
conference yesterday, Ms Mwalimu said after President Magufuli found out
that there was a dillydallying on the Kenyan side over the hiring of
doctors it had requested in March, he thought it was prudent for him to
immediately absorb the medics internally.
She said, according
to an agreement between the two countries, the doctors were supposed to
travel to Kenya between April 6 and 10.
"The President
demanded to know from me why the doctors were yet to travel to Kenya.
After a brief discussion, he ultimately decided to employ them so as to
fill in the gaps in the local public sector," she said.
Ms Mwalimu said the
President's decision was aimed at curbing the shortage of doctors in
public hospitals. "For a long time we have been struggling on how to get
money to employ a reasonable number of doctors to curtail the shortage.
Now, as long as it is the President making this decision, he knows
where he would find the money," she said.
Three weeks ago,
Employment and Labour Relations Court of Kenya issued a temporal stop
order for the Nairobi government from employing foreign medics. Five
Kenyan medics had sued to stop their government from hiring 500
Tanzanian doctors while there were hundreds of unemployed Kenyan medics.
According to Ms
Mwalimu, as the court order was delivered already her ministry had
received a total of 496 applications of medical doctors prepared to go
and work in Kenya.
"After conducting our evaluations, the 258 doctors had qualified to go to Kenya," she added.
Minister Mwalimu
said her ministry will soon publicise the names of the 258 doctors and
the working station to which they have been posted in the ministry's
website.
According to her,
the government was standby to provide Kenya with the 500 medics that
they were looking for since there were still many unemployed doctors in
Tanzania.
"What the President
wants is assurance that there is no hindrance in the whole process.
When that is assured then we will process another round of call for
doctors who have never been employed in the formal sector and provide
our neighbours with the doctors they would ask for," she said.
Last month, a
delegation sent by President Uhuru Kenyatta, led by Cabinet Secretary
for Health, Dr Cleopa Mailu, called on President Magufuli at the
Magogoni State House in Dar es Salaam and presented him with the request
of employing 500 Tanzanian doctors.
Reacting, the
president of the Medical Association of Tanzania (MAT), Dr Obadia
Nyongole, congratulated President John Magufuli for the decision, urging
for more job opportunities to created to address the shortage of
doctors in the country.
"I congratulate and
thank the President for this bold step. It is very encouraging to see
that trained doctors can find a job in their own country," said Dr
Nyongole. Dr Nyongole called upon 258 doctors, who would secure
employment, to ensure they follow the tailored procedures, asking the
Ministry of Health to issue job permits to doctors, according to the
country's shortage of medics.
"As they came
forward voluntarily and asked for a chance of going to Kenya to provide
health services, we ask those doctors who would be chosen to be ready to
work at their work stations and provide services to Tanzanians," he
said.
(Additional reporting by Harieth Makweta)
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