Kigali: The high-end King Faisal hospital is to increase treatment fares by 40 percent as part of plans to expand and give the best of services, its chief executive said.

Private patients with no health insurance will start to pay Rwf 15,000 ($30) just to see a doctor – up from Rwf 10,000, Dr. Innocent Nyaruhirira told reporters.  

The hospital has been operating as the final referral but largely for the upper-end patient. However, government remains unimpressed that years down the road and increased allocations, patients are still ferried to Nairobi and other countries for treatment. Government spends about $1.5million annually sending people abroad for better treatment.

Fares have been increased several times since Dr. Nyaruhirira was brought in to reorganize the hospital early last year – after he was drop from cabinet.

He said the fares will enable the hospital to give more time to its patients and retain the best practitioners.

In August 2006, government got a US$12 (Rwf 7 Bn) loan from the Saudi Development Fund to expand the hospital, to be repaid over a ten-year period.

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