REPUBLIC OF RWANDA                                    Kigali, March 16, 2012MINISTRY OF HEALTH

PRESS STATEMENT Clarifications of Health Sector RemunerationsThe Minister of Health Dr. Agnes Binagwaho would like to make clarifications on some on-going and misleading media reports stating that the ministry has cut salaries for some staff within our health facilities including Doctors, Nurses and Midwives.While we remain mindful of the great value and contribution that health care providers render to our people across our country, the Ministry of Health is also at the same time mandated to ensure that rules, regulations and guidelines adopted as a Government are adhered to within the sector.In light of the above, the Ministry of Health recently issued a circular instructing District Hospital Directors to follow Public service regulations that provide guidance on the approved Salary structure for our sector.Normally, Health professionals draw a net pay from Government that is supplemented with a ‘Reward-for-Results’ or Top-Up mechanism, known as Performance Based Financing (PBF) that was approved by Government as a motivation for the Health sector to go an extra mile in producing positive results.  This extra package (PBF) is received across the board and is mainly tagged to results.However, it has been noted that in addition to the Government remuneration and this PBF, hospitals have been using internally generated revenues to again issue another additional top-up onto their Net take home in an uncoordinated manner.These internally generated hospital revenues are not supposed to be used for any top-ups but rather should be spent on improving the quality of health care services like acquiring more equipment, maintaining infrastructure and ensuring that more basic needs are available in health facilities.In addition, the issued circular reminded management of District hospitals to harmonize and align Net Take home for health care providers paid under project resources to those under the Civil Service structure. This is to avoid any disparities that could create a feeling of unfairness among clinicians and other health care providers.However, in light of the above, we are mindful of the great work done by some health professionals in remote areas for which the Ministry is currently working on a mechanism of how to reward them. The Ministry of Health is also collecting data on different practices used in all health facilities for proper analysis in order to come up with a harmonised and balanced incentive system.Once again, the Ministry of Health is mindful of the great contribution done by cadres of this sector, for which we attach value. However, the above decision was taken to stamp out inequality and ensure a harmonised remuneration structure for our sector. Dr. Agnes BinagwahoMinister of HealthRepublic of Rwanda