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Doctors give govt 15 days to deploy interns
Dr Herbert Luswata, the secretary general of the Uganda Medical Association, during a press briefing in Mulago hospital on July 16, 2023. PHOTO/SYLIVIA KATUSHABE
What you need to know:
- The health workers are overwhelmed due to the excess work they shoulder as a result of lack of interns.
Medical workers under their umbrella body Uganda Medical Association (UMA) have given the government 15 days starting today to deploy medical interns.
The medics threatened an industrial action if the government doesn’t deploy interns by August 1.
The UMA secretary general, Dr Herbert Lukwata, said the decision followed a general meeting they had as medics.
“These people have been trying to strike on their own but we realise that it has not made any impact but now we want everyone to come on board so that we can push the government to act,” Dr Luswata said at a press briefing in Mulago hospital yesterday.
The medical interns have held several strikes protesting the government’s delay to deploy them.
Dr Luswata noted that interns cover 70 percent of human resources in hospitals.
He said the number of patients and pregnant women who are dying due to lack of personnel to attend to them is increasing.
“Our colleagues are overworked, you work two shifts, time comes and you cannot give enough time to patients for you to understand their problem properly and do proper diagnosis and also give them proper treatment,” Dr Luswata said.
He added: “Because you are always tired and overwhelmed, you are at a risk of making a wrong diagnosis, later on, you realise you have made a wrong diagnosis but the patient has already left.”
Dr Luswata noted that about Shs101b is needed to solve the issues of deploying interns and paying allowances of senior house officers (SHOs).
The medics said the government has been making empty promises regarding the deployment of the interns.
“We request the Ministry of Finance to act on their promise and provide funds for the deployment and payment of allowances for SHO as directed by Cabinet before August 1,” Dr Luswata said.
The medics also requested the Ministry of Public Service to follow the timeline that was provided by the head of Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet to conduct job evaluations, change the title of medical officers special grade and solve the salary discrepancies within 60 days.
Dr Joel Mirembe, the UMA central region chairperson, said doctors have started falling sick due to exhaustion.
“We are not going to allow our colleagues to fall sick over and over again. That means that some of them are going to withdraw care so that the government can see the problem because it seems they are not seeing it,” he said.
He also requested the government to revise its political will of health care and act to save the common Ugandan suffering in hospitals.
UMA is a national professional association with the membership exclusively drawn from duly registered medical practitioners.
Mr Jim Mugunga, the Ministry of Finance Planning and Economic Development spokesperson, said the ministry policy and technical leadership is aware of the plight of all medics.
Mr Mugunga said the ministry leadership continues to work committedly within established systems of government to find a sustainable solution.
“The issues to consider are not purely monetary but policy too. It is not a call or decision to be made by the Ministry alone, what I know is that a wider government is committed to resolving the matter although I can’t commit to specific timelines,” he said.
Deploying interns
The government needs Shs80.4 billion to deploy about 1,901 medical interns for a year. The interns have not been deployed for close to a year.
Although Parliament and Cabinet directed the Ministry of Finance to provide funds for the exercise, it has not released the money to date.
