Plans to pay health workers by performance

Apr 28, 2016

The same system has been used in many countries in Africa including Rwanda.

The ministry of health is planning to introduce a performance-based financing (PBF) scheme whereby health workers will be paid according to their performance.

Primary health care state minister Sarah Opendi said; there is big outcry in the country about poor health services because some of the health workers are not performing to their expectations.

Opendi expressed concern that it is not fair to increase the number of health workers when actually the performance of some of the medics remains poor.

"When we introduce PBF scheme we shall be able to pay health workers according to work performed within a given period of time," she said.

She said people are given permanent jobs and at the end of the month they are paid even if they do not work.

She is optimistic that the new system will work because even the Private health facilities are using the same system. 'When you go in private sector you find a doctor on duty working but when it comes to government health facilities whether a health worker performs or not he earns a salary,' she said last week.

The same system has been used in many countries in Africa including Rwanda where the entire country is using performance-based financing.

A senior lecture at Makerere University School of Public health (MakSPH) Dr. Elizabeth Ekirapa said PDF scheme along with other efforts can help to improve the delivery of health services in Uganda.

Speaking while meeting the staff and students of MakSPH she said, PBF scheme will make health workers more productive. She added that the scheme allows the facility management to decide the kind of things they require to do in order to provide better services.

She noted that the scheme gives facility managers freedom to think of innovate ways.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});