Govt earmarks Shs35b for new medical interns

“We expect the interns to report to the training sites from August 1 and begin the internship. The (internship placement) list will be out by the end of today (Monday),” Mr Akiiri said yesterday.

Dr Joseph Socrates Odongo, an intern doctor who has been coordinating interns, said they are ready for deployment, but emphasised they are not satisfied with the amount of money the ministry will pay them.

Interns demand

“Some two years back, the President of Uganda issued a directive that all interns should be paid half of what the substantive cadre earns. So, we want to know whether the ministry will implement it or not and what the way forward is,” he said.

However, Mr Akiiri said they don’t have enough money to implement the presidential directive.

“The President indeed directed that we pay Shs2.5 million per intern (doctor) sometime back when the numbers were manageable,” he explained.

“But because we operate a budget that has not grown, we discussed and agreed that for purposes of equity given that the numbers had grown, we accommodate many numbers of interns and reduce the facilitation to Shs1 million to be able to accommodate more numbers and that’s the decision,” he added.

Dr Angel Mirembe, another intern doctor on the other hand, said there is a need to revise “the 36-hour [work] shift that interns” are subjected to, to improve efficiency and reduce “mental health issues” due to stress resulting from working long hours.

They spoke during the national induction for medical interns cohort 2024/2025 in a meeting at Makerere University.

Dr Alfred Driwale, the commissioner for Institutional Capacity Building and Human Resources for Health Development at the Health Ministry, said the induction meeting is intended to transform the medical doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists [and dentists] who have been going through five or four years of training.

“So they (medical interns) are theoretically competent as examined by their various institutions. They have passed [and graduated]. But in this country, before you are given the authority to treat people, you must go through intense training or internship where you can now be allowed to treat people independently. So it is a part of the training process,” Dr Driwale said.

Training

“So in the internship, we are giving a transition period where the doctors who have qualified. We’ll be practising under supervision, under observation and it is continuous learning for them. So that now they’re able to process patients’ complaints into a disease product which can be treated,” he added.