Minister of Health Honorable Nkaku Kabi says the parliament has approved their request to increase housing allowance for Lesotho doctors from M600.00 to M10 000.00.

He said Lesotho doctors have been on strike for about three months by now for understandable reasons.

He said when doctors started their strike; they were already in the advanced stages of resolving their concerns.

In his statement, he said they are aware of the high costs the government incurs for transferring patients outside the country, due to the shortage of specialist doctors.

He said their aim is to increase doctors’ salaries to attract Basotho doctors working in other countries, and to retain those already working in Lesotho.

He indicated that there is an agreement between the Government of Lesotho and Basotho doctors, that if they work in government hospitals the government will pay rent for them, although some doctors did not get rented houses from the government, and they had to rent private houses which their monthly payments ranged between M8000.00 and M15 000.00.

He said they told doctors when they started their strike, that there are some of their concerns they had already tabled in the parliament, and that they requested housing allowance that is higher than the M8000.00 they were demanding.