President Kagame: The medical career is guided by certain ethics and principles just like other careers, but how you translate them into actions is what determines that you really understand those principles. #MeetThePresident
President Kagame: It is good and important for people to have principles, but it doesn’t mean that those principles are applied. When those principles are not applied right, we lose a lot and that’s the basis of most of the problems we face. #MeetThePresident
President Kagame: On one hand, it is up to you, the professionals and practitioners, you are the one who invested in yourself, in your education and gaining knowledge in what is needed. #MeetThePresident
President Kagame: As a person who wants to earn a good living with that profession, it has to have value to you personally, add to your satisfaction and to reaching your goals. #MeetThePresident
President Kagame: But it is also about how you interface with the society. You are a professional, you get a salary and you have pride in what you do. When you meet with people, the patients and their family, you have a responsibility as a professional. #MeetThePresident
President Kagame: You know what the country can provide and you can distinguish that there are some things that are not available not because someone gives you less value, but because it is not within our means. #MeetThePresident
President Kagame to medical doctors: Your responsibility is to uphold professionalism and learn how to strike a balance between your personal needs and the needs of the citizens you serve. #MeetThePresident
President Kagame: You have to have the mindset to know that it starts with you. You don’t have to wait for others to tell you that what you are doing is wrong, it doesn’t make sense. You are not ignorant. #MeetThePresident
President Kagame: There is a blame game that goes on between doctors, ministers, mayors, and others. No one has taken responsibility and said I have contributed to this problem, let me contribute to the solution. #MeetThePresident
President Kagame: When I ask Minister, they blame their predecessor, their predecessor blames the previous one. What is left is for the current ones to start blaming the future ministers. #MeetThePresident
President Kagame: No one is accepting responsibility and bringing solutions. That is why we discuss the same challenges for 10, 15, 20 years. The easy thing to blame is budget and seeking refuge in budget. Why do you entertain malpractices and then complain? #MeetThePresident
President Kagame: We can't complain about budget and yet we are the ones chasing away those who are seeking services that they are willing to pay for. #MeetThePresident
President Kagame: How can you be heading an institution, that provides a service, for which you need to be paid, and you forget to make people pay, and then claim that your challenge is the budget. #MeetThePresident
President Kagame: There are people running after doctors to pay what they owe to health institutions. There is sometimes hundreds of millions owed to institutions who do not follow up and then complain about budget. What do you blame that on? #MeetThePresident
President Kagame: There is also carelessness. Someone went to the hospital and said they are a relative of Kagame. They were put in a VIP room and then the bill came to me. #MeetThePresident
President Kagame: When I asked the institution what proof did you have before accepting, they had none. How can you know you need money and you entertain this behavior? #MeetThePresident
President Kagame: I went to visit someone who had food poisoning. He was recommended to be evacuated. I asked the Doctor how do you allow for things to get out of hand. Does food poisoning require evacuation? #MeetThePresident
President Kagame: Sending patients abroad has become a way to appease their families. We say inappropriate words in front of patients who end up more frightened than they should be and the best solution they can think of is seeking help outside the country. #MeetThePresident
President Kagame: You are the ones to reassure them that they can rely on your services without being worried about what might be the consequences. #MeetThePresident
President Kagame: It has nothing to do with knowledge and skills. You are abusing your own profession. It has nothing to do with remuneration and it has nothing to do with lack of laboratories or facilities. It has everything to do with attitude. #MeetThePresident
President Kagame: A minister comes and the entire hospital comes to receive him,leaving the patients who are even more vulnerable than that minister. How does a professional entertain that? How do you perceive importance over emergency? #MeetThePresident
President Kagame: The Prime Minister goes to get a problem on his finger fixed and the head of the hospital and every doctor comes. Is that how it should work? Have you seen it anywhere else. What does this have to do with your profession? It is absolute carelessness.
President Kagame: How do you entertain that because of some people with perceived importance, the whole institution crumbles to attend to that person including in the intensive care unit or in the emergency room. #MeetThePresident
President Kagame: Why would you do that? What does this have to do with budget? It is just bad habit. You are not fulfilling the principles of the profession. #MeetThePresident
President Kagame: You go to the hospital and they look at you with disdain as if to say, don’t come back here or don’t get sick again and this has become normal. And if you say something, you are the one with the problem. How do you explain that? And it is rampant.
President Kagame: Let’s understand there are good things we have been doing and celebrate them, but if there are things that must be corrected, correct them without being defensive. #MeetThePresident
President Kagame on citizens opting to travel for healthcare: It is our task to reverse that perception, we have to reassure people that things have changed. But you can’t reverse it with speeches, you reverse it by what you are doing and with results. #MeetThePresident
President Kagame: It is a perception built on certain realities, we have to confront them and deal with them. We have to reverse this attitude and perception. #MeetThePresident
President Kagame to medical doctors: Talk to yourself, ask yourself, what is justified about what is wrong, about a mistake I am making. If you are talking to yourself you will not be defensive, you will accept it and I know you will do better. #MeetThePresident
President Kagame: The best way to address the problem is try to say there is something we can change, starting with myself, I need to examine myself and see if i can change and make an effort. #MeetThePresident
President Kagame concludes: We can’t afford to have our health system either decline or not move forward as fast as possible. #MeetThePresident
