Good News for Kenyan doctors based in Cuba as the government assures them allowances which have been enhanced from about Sh100,000 to Sh145,000 starting this month.
This was after an investigation team observed that the cost of living in Cuba was relatively high.
The government has dismissed claims that 50 Kenyan doctors studying in Cuba are neglected, saying they are progressing well with the advanced training programme.
The Health Cabinet secretary Sicily Kariuki said from the assessment, it was established that the students had been posted to various polyclinics across Havana for their postgraduate training, following successful completion of a language course in January.
CS Kariuki on Wednesday said the government has moved to address challenges posed by the high cost of living in Cuba through
The increment in allowances came against the backdrop of heightened complaints from the doctors in Cuba, who had expressed their desire to return home. They had also written a distress letter to the National Assembly Committee on Health complaining of poor working conditions in the foreign country.
Last month, one of the Kenyan doctors in the programme allegedly committed suicide. Consequently, on March 20, the ministry sent officials to Cuba to assess the progress of the programme and welfare of the doctors.
The 50 doctors travelled to Cuba in September, last year, to study family medicine for the two years under the government-sponsored programme. In the exchange programme, 100 specialist doctors came into the country in June and were deployed to counties.
At the same time, the CS urged private and public hospitals to consider waiving charges for deserving patients and desist from detaining them over accrued bills.
“Do not detain someone who has gotten well and it has been confirmed from the social workers and chiefs that they will not afford to pay. Let us be constitutionally upright and do the right thing,” she said.
Her plea comes even as a team, which was appointed on March 27 to assess detention of patients and bodies in major health facilities is expected to complete its task tomorrow and submit a report to the ministry. On Tuesday, 250 patients detained at Kenya National Hospital (KNH) were released after their bills were waived.