A total of 1 866 doctors have applied for the Higherlife Foundation (HLF) fellowships ahead of last Sunday’s deadline.
HLF has pledged to offer doctors working in the public health sector a non-negotiable monthly subsistence allowance of $5 000 per doctor and free transport, a smartphone and a VAYA pool car voucher to access the hospital at a maximum of three trips per day. It said in a statement:
In line with our commitment to putting the patient first, we are pleased to announce that our free VAYA transport programme for nurses and doctors, which has been in place for the past six months, has been further extended and will run through to July 2020.
In 2019, the founder of HLF, the Masiyiwa Family, announced a $100 million medical training completion fellowship for about 2 000 junior and senior doctors employed by the government.
Initially, there was scepticism towards the HLF offer with only 362 having applied by December.
The Masiyiwas dangled the deal in a bid to enable doctors to go back to work following a 3-months long strike that had grounded the health sector.