King Faisal Hospital staff told to re-apply for jobs

The Ministry of Health has given all employees at King Faisal Hospital a deadline of one month to re-apply for their jobs.Health Minister, Dr Agnes Binagwaho, made the announcement during a meeting with the hospital staff on Wednesday.The minister explained that the decision was arrived at following the hospital’s loss of autonomy to Rwanda Bio-medical Centre (RBC). RBC is an arm under the Ministry of Health charged with promotion of quality affordable and sustainable health care services to the population through innovative and evidence based interventions.The hospital has been under the management of RBC for a year now, which the ministry described as “a grace period.”“Every employee has to re-apply because they are no longer employees of King Faisal but of RBC. So, everyone should adhere lest they lose their jobs.” The Minister allayed fears over job losses at one of the country’s largest health facilities, saying the jobs belong to the already existing staff. She underlined that their jobs would not be advertised.She maintained that the move was the right criterion and procedural for those seeking for jobs.According to a source at the hospital, this could be a trap to lay off some employees.“We are over 600 employees and yet the structure here provides for around 400 employees. We think they are just looking for means to get rid of the extra 200 employees,” said the source who sought anonymity.However, the Head of Division at Health Communication Centre/ RBC, Arthur Asiimwe, allayed these fears, saying the hospital makes enough money to pay all employees.“This is basically a change of contracts. In fact, it’s not termination. It’s going to be internal just to harmonise the contracts which is a turn-around strategy to make the hospital more effective and set them on course to deliver better quality services.”He added that besides their salaries, the staff would also be remunerated based on the number of cases handled as a motivational strategy.

National

King Faisal Hospital staff told to re-apply for jobs