The government has stepped up efforts to train surgeons in the country. "This is aimed at addressing the problem of few numbers of surgeons in relation to the country’s population,” the Secretary General of the Ministry of Health, Caroline Rwivanga Kayonga, said.

She was recently addressing a regional meeting of surgeons at the Serena Hotel in Kigali.

Kayonga said that the ministry has started post graduate training for surgeons locally and abroad.

The two-day meeting brought together surgeons from Association of Surgeons of Eastern Africa and the College of Surgeons of Eastern, Central and Southern Africa (ASEA/COSECSA).

The secretary general decried the low numbers of surgeons in the country, saying that currently there are only twenty-five surgeons countrywide. And of these, she said, eleven of them are foreigners, making it a ratio of one surgeon to four hundred thousand people.

Rwanda’s population is estimated to be slightly less than 10 million.  She called upon Rwandan surgeons to take their services to right to local communities.

She added that the ministry is ready to offer support to the association of surgeons in the country.

Kayonga further called upon the other medical practitioners like paediatricians and gynaecologists to emulate the surgeons and organise themselves into associations.

Speaking at the meeting, the editor of the Eastern and Central African Surgeons’ journal, Professor Ignatius Kakande, called on the government to ensure that surgeons are well paid so that they do not leave the country for better opportunities abroad.

The Association of Surgeons of Rwanda (ASR) was formed earlier this year. ASR seeks to advance surgery in Rwanda and develop cooperation with other similar associations in the region.

The two-day meeting also discussed the prevalence of male circumcision and its role in the fight against HIV/Aids and syphilis.

Recent medical studies indicated that male circumcision drastically reduces the possibility of contracting HIV.

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