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How deal to import Cuban doctors began
Standing firm. Uganda Medical Association president Ekwaro Obuku addresses medical doctors during last year’s strike. PHOTO BY RACHEL MABALA
What you need to know:
- Dr Ekwaro Obuku, the president of the Uganda Medical Association (UMA), yesterday asked government to follow the law and subject the Cuban doctors to an examination before they can practice medicine in Uganda. “We welcome Cuban doctors with open arms as professional brethren. We will request that the law is followed with a Medical Licensing Examination Board (MLEB) exam for foreign-trained doctors and mass advertisements by the Health Service Commission for open competition; higher and equal remuneration for all irrespective of the nationality,” Dr Obuku said.
- Recent pronouncements. The Uganda Medical Association has opposed the importation of the doctors on grounds that their Ugandan counterparts can do the work that the former are being brought to do. The National Organisation of Trade Unions has also opposed the move, saying local doctors should be paid well to do the work.
PARLIAMENT. The scheme to import 200 Cuban doctors was hatched during a State House meeting when an angry President Museveni said the striking Ugandan medics were holding the government hostage.
The Permanent Secretary of the Health ministry, Dr Diana Atwine, yesterday told Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that Mr Museveni accused the doctors of “holding the government to ransom” and proposed hiring medics from the Caribbean country to replace them.
When Ugandan doctors went on strike towards the end of last year following a long-standing dispute over pay raise and working conditions, Mr Museveni convened a crisis meeting at State House in Entebbe. The meeting was attended by technocrats from the Health, Public Service, Labour and Finance ministries, with representatives from the Health Service Commission (HSC).
Dr Atwine said Mr Museveni was particularly angry because he had earlier chaired a meeting where he had promised to increase salaries of doctors to Shs5m in a last-ditch attempt to avert the strike but the medics went ahead with their industrial action.
“In that meeting, the President said in the circumstances, why we didn’t look at alternatives if this group was going to hold us to ransom. He actually instructed us to look at that notion [of importing doctors from Cuba]. This proposal is not a ministry proposal. This was a decision that was reached and brought on board by the President,” Dr Atwine told MPs.
The State House meeting then recommended that an inter-ministerial team comprising officials from Public Service, Health, Finance, Solicitor General Francis Atoke, Deputy Treasurer Francis Ocailap and the HSC chairman travels to Cuba to pursue the deal to import doctors.
A report by that team detailing how the Cuban doctors will work is set to be discussed by Cabinet before the Health ministry brings them and deploys them across the country.
However, Dr Atwine did not explain whether the challenges the Ugandan doctors listed as reasons for their strike will be resolved by mere importation of Cuban doctors.
Mr Museveni strongly reiterated his decision to import Cuban doctors during Labour Day celebrations on Tuesday, accusing Ugandan doctors of blackmail and declared them “enemies of the country who should be treated as such.”
In the run-up to their strike last year, the doctors demanded improved salaries, better allowances, housing, vehicles, domestic workers and disbandment or restructuring of the State House Health Monitoring Unit, which monitors health service delivery.
Yesterday, Masaka Municipality MP Mathias Mpuuga asked Dr Atwine to explain whether Cuban doctors would be imported with medicines because the consistent shortage of drugs and medical supplies was one of the demands that triggered the strike by Ugandan doctors.
“Why import doctors from Cuba who can hardly speak any English or local language? Why not Kenyans? Who will foot the bill for other attendant costs such as interpreters and air tickets for the doctors and their families?” Mr Mpuuga asked.
PAC vice chairman Gerald Karuhanga wondered why the government has proposed to pay Cuban doctors $1,500 (Shs5.4m) excluding housing, transport and security allowances while Ugandan doctors are listed to earn Shs4.4m.
“Even in your current proposals, you see that you are not fair to the Ugandan doctors. Uganda is not short of doctors. Doctors have made demands that you have not handled but instead you want to bring in Cuban doctors,” Mr Karuhanga said.
Hurdles Cuban doctors face to work in Uganda
The Cuban doctors pending importation will face a raft of legal and professional hurdles to jump before they can offer their medical services in Uganda.
They will have to be subjected to a “peer review committee”, undergo a one-month internship and be registered by the Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners Council.
Dr Ekwaro Obuku, the president of the Uganda Medical Association (UMA), yesterday asked government to follow the law and subject the Cuban doctors to an examination before they can practice medicine in Uganda. “We welcome Cuban doctors with open arms as professional brethren. We will request that the law is followed with a Medical Licensing Examination Board (MLEB) exam for foreign-trained doctors and mass advertisements by the Health Service Commission for open competition; higher and equal remuneration for all irrespective of the nationality,” Dr Obuku said.
Prof Joel Okullo, the chairman of the Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners Council (UMDPC), said anyone who comes to Uganda to practice medicine must first register with the Council.
He said each individual specialist, including Cuban doctors are supposed to face a Peer Review panel on top of attending a one-month internship programme before they are registered to practise medicine in Uganda.
“Anyone who comes to practise medicine in Uganda has to apply to the UMDPC. They are expected to attach their academic credentials, certificates of good licences and practicing licences from their home countries,” Prof Okullo said.
He said such expatriates are peer-reviewed by a team of specialists depending on their areas of specialty before the one-month internship.
He said they have to present a satisfactory report after the one-month internship.
He said doctors who are subjected to MLEB examination are those who have trained in foreign universities, which are not recognised by the UMDPC.
Section 20 of the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act of 1998 states: “Where a person holds a qualification, which is not recognised by the Council or which is not awarded by a university established in Uganda by law, he or she may apply to the Council, and the Council may make arrangements for that person to attend an interview and sit for an oral or written examination or both for the purpose of having his or her qualification recognised by the Council.”
It adds that the Council shall authorise the registration of a person if it is satisfied with the results of an interview or examination under subsection (1) or when the conditions given under subsection (2) are fulfilled to its satisfaction.
“The doctors who come from universities recognised by the medical council and have been practising in their home countries, we register them upon presenting a certificate of good conduct. This is meant to stop any unethical conduct,” Prof Okullo added.
He cited an example of a neurosurgeon who the Council discovered was a masquerader after being subjected to a practical one-month internship. (BY EMMANUEL AINEBYOONA)
