In our last week’s edition of The Guardian on Sunday, we
published a lead story detailing how expensive it is to train a
single doctor, with conservative estimates showing that it costs
between $40,000 (Sh60 million) and $60,000 (Sh90million) to
train a single doctor in our local universities. This cost could
double if the doctors are trained abroad, especially in Europe
and the United States of America. Roughly speaking, we found
that the sacked 300 doctors have cost the Tanzanian taxpayers a
whopping Sh20 billion to train. In calculating the simple
arithmetic of winners and losers, we established that the
government’s decision to sack the 300 doctors would cost the
country more than the benefits the move was intended to gain.
Our survey used a study conducted by Canadian scientists last
year, which was published in November 2011 by the British
Medical Journal, as a benchmark to calculate the cost of medical
education and the loss of returns on investment for Tanzania and
the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. With