BUJUMBURA March 5th (ABP) – The Burundi National Assembly (AN) has just done a charitable activity to 28 vulnerable patients on the occasion of the exchange of the wishes among the staff of that institution, on Friday March 2, 2018.
At the end of the exchange of the wishes among the staff of that institution, AN Speaker Honorable Pascal Nyabenda said that the National Assembly is preparing a day of exchange of wishes for its staff every year and this year, the day was prepared during the Lenten period, the reason why the staff preferred this to be accompanied by a charitable action. Patients already cured but who had been retained by the Prince Regent Charles Hospital Authority (HPRC) and the Kamenge University Hospital Center (CHUK), as indicated by Honorable Nyabenda, were assisted by paying their bills so that they can celebrate Easter in their respective families. Other patients received loincloths.
Mr. Nyabenda indicated that this action is the result of the will and efforts of the National Assembly staff and its proper name, clarifying that a sum of six million has been collected to pay the bills of those patients and his personal contribution raises to one million Burundian francs. He pointed out that this aid consisted of payment for 28 out of 38 patients proposed, of which 17 patients out of 21 proposed to the HPRC and 11 out of 17 proposed to the CHUK as well as the granting of 45 loincloths of which 25 to the HPRC and 20 to the CHUK. Each hospital received 3 million Burundian francs.
The Speaker of the National Assembly said that this initiative was motivated by the Christian spirit in which every person during Lent is called to help and do good deeds to the most vulnerable. On that occasion, he also appealed to other benefactors to make a similar gesture so that even those who could not benefit from it could leave hospitals.
Regarding the practice of retaining patients who lack the means to pay their bills after being cured, Honorable Nyabenda said that it is the strategy of hospitals to recover the means used to treat those patients and that the lifting of this will result from the request by the Ministry in charge of health by the demonstration of its necessity.
As for the 25 former workers claiming to have been illegally dismissed from the HPRC, Nyabenda reported that he consulted the administration of the hospital on the spot and that he promised that investigations are being conducted for a good and fair end.