Both her two-year-old and five-year-old are suffering from malaria. The young baby is hot to the touch with fever.
“I came here at 9 am and now look at your watch it’s almost 3 p.m, without any treatment for my kids, and this one at the back is seriously sick,” Mukarugwiza lamented.
In Rwanda there is a severe of shortage of doctors which means even people with health insurance sometimes can’t get medical care.
There are only 500 doctors practicing in Rwanda, according to the Ministry of Health. Dr. Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo, the minister of health, said that international law dictates that one doctor should have no more than 10,000 patients. In Rwanda, there are 20,000 patients for every doctor.
Ntawukuriryayo said that the shortage of doctors and nurses is caused by many factors. Some doctors leave the country to make more money elsewhere and some leave for other reasons. Doctors earn 400,000 Frw a month in Rwanda. The minister said he is working to reverse the brain drain.
“We are trying to increase the salaries of doctors because some of them when they finish their studies look for better paying jobs especially in NGOs, and we have set up five schools of nurses so that the number of nurses can increase,” Ntawukuriryayo said.
Dr. Mukama Abbas, who works at the hospital of Byumba in Gicumbi district, said that the shortage of doctors is mainly caused by low salaries and because doctors want to work in towns, not villages.
“In town there are many facilities which are not in villages.One can have a chance of further studies, good houses and that’s why many doctors don’t want to work in villages,” Mukama said.
Because of the shortage of doctors, the minister of health has asked each hospital to hire more doctors with new money they are getting from health insurance beneficiaries.
In 2005, the government of Rwanda started a national health insurance program as a strategy to reduce the number of people dying of different and simple diseases.
Health insurance has been successful according to many people interviewed for this story, though they mentioned challenges trying to use the insurance.
Harerimana Joseph, 23, recently brought his wife to a hospital in Gasaka Sector of Nyamagabe District to be treated for stomach pains, but they failed to see a doctor because of the number of people already waiting in line.
“Health insurance is really good because it helps us to pay less money, but the problem now I have is to spend the whole day here with my wife without treatment,”said Joseph while nodding his head.
Mukagasarabwe Marie Rose, a nurse who is in charge of health care at the hospital of Nyamagabe,. said that the overcrowding is caused by few doctors at the hospital, when the patients come in large numbers every day. In her district, 86 per cent of the total population has health care insurance.
“Maybe you journalists can ask the minister of health about this problem; because it is known in the whole country,” Mukagasarabwe said.
Nsengimana Sylvan, 39, was eager to tell his story
Both he and his wife were sick and waiting in line to be treated. Nsengimana said sometimes the problem was too many people and sometimes the problem was that doctors were doing other things.
Despite the problems, Sylvan said health insurance is really good. It cost the couple 20,000FRW when his wife gave birth to their first child – before they got health insurance. The last time she gave birth, it only cost them 300 FRW.
“When some one gets sick, that’s when you realize the importance of health care.” (End)
This story was adapted from The Rwanda Initiative