Govt to stop paying allowances for private medical students

Government has come up with a new policy which among other things regulates the payment of allowances for medical interns who will have studied under a private arrangement.

The policy, according to Prime Minister Robina Nabbanja, will be presented and discussed on Monday during cabinet meeting.

This was revealed in the meeting organized yesterday at the office of the prime minister and attended by different education and health stakeholders. 

The media was not invited to the meeting but Judith Nalukwago, who represented the pre-medical interns said:

“They drafted a policy and they did not consult us. They had already decided on the policy by the time we went for the general meeting.”

Among the new issues in the policy, university medical students on private sponsorship shall only be receiving food allowances.

Other allowances which include transport, accommodations and other basic needs will individually be catered for by students.

Nalukwago also added that the prime minister requested the pre-medical interns to work for free since the government does not have money to pay them.

Currently, there are about 1,900 pre-medical interns waiting to be deployed. The number is believed to be higher than what the government had planned for.

“The prime minister told us that there is no more paying interns and if they are to pay them, they are going to pay those who were government sponsored while in school,” Nalukwago noted.

In other changes, internship is going to be part of the medical school degree and therefore, a university medical student will be studying an extra year. This is contrary to the present where a medical student has to first graduate before doing a mandatory one year-internship.

In addition, each medical student will have to attend mandatory leadership patriotism training in Kyankwanzi District as part of their medical degree.

‘No money, return to work’

On the issue of Senior House Officers and Medical Officers’ Special Grades (MOSG), who are on strike over their arrears, and demand salary increment, Nabbanja said there is no money to cater for that.

However, she asked them to go back to work as the government waits for resolutions from the Monday cabinet meet.

The change of the name from Medical officer Special Grade to Associate Consultant was also discussed and according to Nalukwago, government allowed the change.

The changes follow several strikes by medical interns over several issues regarding their deployment.