President John Pombe Magufuli. [Photo/AJ]
Tanzania’s President John Magufuli has scuttled Kenya’s attempt to hire doctors from his country.
Magufuli on Wednesday ordered his administration to employ the doctors within Tanzania.
Tanzania’s Health minister Ummy Mwalimu made the announcement through Twitter.
On March 18, 2017, a delegation from Kenya led by the minister for Health, Dr Cleopa Mailu, arrived in Tanzania and met President John Pombe Magufuli, the President of the Republic of Tanzania with the intention of hiring about 500 doctors from Tanzania.
On the day of Dr Mailu’s visit, the local Health ministry had announced the Kenyan vacancies for Tanzanian doctors.
The deadline for applications was March 27.
Tanzania’s health ministry received 497 applications and 258 doctors met the threshold.
Kenya and Tanzania agreed that the doctors would be allowed to travel to Kenya between April 6 and 10.
The agreement was, however, scuttled by Magufuli’s directive on April 19, 2017.
The World Health Organization had indicated that none of the three East African countries meet the recommended doctor-patient ratio of one health worker to 600 patients.
Tanzania, with a population of 53 million people, has only three doctors per 100,000 citizens. Kenya has 20 doctors per 100, 000 people – as reported by The Daily Nation.