Dr Annet Kezaabu Kasimbazi, the acting Vice Chancellor of Kampala International University (KIU), Kansanga on Wednesday afternoon told journalists that KIU has had over 50 Cuban doctors teach their nursing students at the Western Campus in Ishaka for over two years now. It is no shock, Dr Kezaabu said, that KIU churns out skilled and professional medics.
Dr Kezaabu wondered why Ugandans were up in arms when government announced a plan to import Cuban doctors to supplement the indigenous doctors- and yet KIU has had them for years now.
“As KIU we’ve had over 50 Cuban doctors teaching our students at the Western Campus. And the results speak for themselves, our students are excelling during their internships in regional hospitals all over the country,” Dr Kezaabu said.
President Yoweri Museveni this month defended a government proposal to import medical personnel from Cuba to work in public hospitals in rural areas, saying the move was intended to avert a crisis created by Ugandan doctors.
Reports indicate that government intends to import at least 200 Cuban doctors, in a plan that was mooted during the doctors’ strike in protest of poor pay and poor working conditions late last year.
Speaking at the National Labor Day Celebrations in Sembabule district on May 1, President Museveni said that Ugandan doctors wanted to create a crisis through their strikes but failed. He says he will import the Cuban doctors to do work that Ugandan medics think that they are earning peanuts for.
The Permanent Secretary Ministry of Health Dr Diana Atwine had a day earlier said a decision on the Cubans coming was awaiting Cabinet approval, and that only specialists to be seconded to referral hospitals, would be considered.
About KIU Western Campus
Kampala International University’s Western Campus [KIU-WC] is situated on about 70 acres of land in Ishaka, along Mbarara –Kasese Road in Western Uganda. This spacious campus was opened by His Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the President of the Republic of Uganda on 01 November 2004.
The University’s School of Health Sciences [SHS] is located at the western campus.
The SHS started as a Faculty of Health Sciences [FSH] at the Main Campus of KIU at Kansanga in Kampala City in 2003. The FHS was translocated from the Main Campus in Kampala to the Western Campus at Ishaka. Following the translocation, the FHS was expanded by starting the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Chirugia (Surgery) (MBChB), the Bachelor of Pharmacy (B.Pharm) and Bachelor of Nursing Sciences (BNS) degree programmes, and the Diploma in Nursing Sciences (DNS) Programmes. Others include programs in Education, Business and Management and Information Technology. With this academic expansion, the FHS was renamed the School of Health Sciences (SHS) to imply that KIU was to develop this to become one of its centres of excellence.
The School continues to expand and by September 2013 the campus had an enrolment of over 5000 students in its various programmes and academic staff strength of 200 and continuing to expand.
It has fully furnished spacious lecture rooms, well equipped computer laboratories, state of the art medical laboratories built to international standards, a Teaching Hospital, students’ accommodation, dining facilities and recreation halls. The School of Health Sciences envisions being a leading training institution for providers of health services in preventive and curative domain, individuals who will promote the health of patients and manage community health problems.
