A group of doctors is up in arms after the government barred medical practitioners working at King Faisal Hospital from running private clinics.

The directive, contained in a memo that was circulated by Dr Alex Butera, the acting director-general of the Kigali-based hospital, has since led to the closure of a Rwf400 million clinic in the city.

“Following the instructions from the Inter-Ministerial Task Force (IMTF) sitting on the 25th of April, 2013, and chaired by the Right Honourable Prime Minister of the Republic of Rwanda (Dr Pierre Damien Habumuremyi), all specialists who have been involved in a private clinic outside King Faisal Hospital are advised to stop their practice forthwith,” reads the memo signed by Dr Butera and dated April 26, 2013.

But Dr Uzziel Ndagijimana, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, has disowned the memo, saying his ministry had nothing to do with this particular case.

Five doctors working at King Faisal and the colleagues in other hospitals had pooled Rwf400 million in savings and bank loans to establish the Great Lakes Medical Consortium and Research Centre, which is located in Remera.

With the new directive, however, there is concern that the business may be headed for collapse.

Attracted Kigali’s elite

Sources privy to the matter say the centre had attracted a huge clientele from Kigali’s elite in record time, thanks to the good services offered there.

The owners had also envisaged a research component at the centre.

“We are not allowed to go on practising at the clinic,” said one of the doctors behind the private hospital. “So, it cannot be sustainable. It is difficult to run a business when you are not present. This is bank money tied up; we do not know how we will repay it.”

The doctors, who are said to be among the best at the hospital which draws its clientele from Rwanda’s elite, have been offering private medical services at the clinic after a day’s work at King Faisal.

Private practice allowed

They can now no longer continue working at the private hospital while still on King Faisal’s payroll, according to the memo.

Dr Ndagijimana moved to clear the government from blame, saying medical practitioners at public health facilities are allowed to do private practice after working hours.

“It is not true; medical practitioners at public health facilities are allowed to go for private practice after working hours,” Dr Ndagijimana said in an interview.

“What has happened at King Faisal is because the hospital became private, I think in January.”

Although King Faisal was given autonomy in February, by press time we could not verify if it was privatised.

“It is like working for MTN and at the same time you want to work for TIGO. There is a competition factor.”

The doctors concerned said they will obey the directive but continue negotiating with the government to allow them to carry on with work at their private hospital.

Sources told Rwanda Today that the government wants the affected doctors to allocate more time to King Faisal but the practitioners maintain they only work at the clinic after working hours.

Government statistics indicate an acute shortage of doctors in Rwanda. For instance, the doctor-to-patient ratio stood at 1:18,000 in 2010 and nurses 1:1,476. Yet salaries of medics remains meagre compared with their workload.

According to an official gazette released in March, a consultant doctor earns about Rwf1.1 million per month, an amount many people have argued is too little for the work they do.

Most medical practitioners at public health facilities make ends meet by doing private practice after working hours.