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MPs, Health officials clash over doctors’ internship
Left-Right: Kilak South MP Gilbert Oulanya, Kyadondo East MP Muwada Nkunyingi, Jinja West MP and Shadow minister of Health Dr Timothy Batuwa, Kassanda North MP Nsamba Patrick Oshabe, and Kabale Municipality MP Dr Nicholas Kamara, address the media at Parliament on June 8, 2023. PHOTO/DAVID LUBOWA
What you need to know:
- Health ministry says their Finance counterparts have not provided the Shs80 billion required to deploy and pay the junior medical workers.
Health ministry yesterday insisted it would not bow to public pressure over the controversial plan to only deploy medical interns who can sustain themselves during the internship.
“For now, that is our position [to deploy those who can sustain themselves]. The questions should be directed to the Ministry of Finance,” Mr Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the spokesperson of the Health ministry said in a brief comment.
He was reacting to warnings from Members of Parliament, specifically, Mr Mathias Mpuuga, the Leader of the Opposition, who said the ministry’s action and behaviour “exposes the taxpayers’ of Uganda to avoidable litigation that may see us spending a lot of money to compensate for these interns.
The government has been paying medical interns between Shs1.5 million to Shs2.5 million, depending on their profession, to keep them motivated as they handle patients.
However, the Health ministry said they are considering the new plan because the Finance ministry has not provided the Shs80 billion required for deploying and paying the junior medical workers.
Medical interns are qualified doctors, nurses, and pharmacists who need to undergo mandatory placement in hospitals for them to get permanent practicing licenses from their respective professional bodies.
The pre-interns, more than 1000 in number, are essential in the health system due to the low number of medical workers employed by the government.
Mr Mpuuga said: “It is mandatory for the government to deploy the pre-medical interns with pay.
The students who chose to pursue those professions did so on the representation of the laws of Uganda under the understanding that they will have to be paid for the mandatory practical work.”
He added: “The government is estopped (barred) from changing the terms of training when these innocent people have acted on that information to pursue those courses.”
Last month, a Cabinet meeting resolved that payment for medical interns should be maintained, quashing the proposal by some government officials that they are too many and require a lot of money.
However, the Finance ministry officials have not been very open to talking about the budget for interns.
Yesterday, Mr Jim Mugunga, the Ministry of Finance spokesperson, expressed ignorance about Cabinet resolutions.
“The questions you are asking need to be addressed by those sitting in Cabinet, I don’t sit there, I just go there on invitations. So I don’t get those resolutions from the Cabinet,” he said.
Mr Mpuuga said the Ministry of Health should not take a risk to deploy some pre-medical interns at their own expense. He warned that the move would be beyond their powers as a ministry.
“The ministry can only change the terms of pre-medical interns’ deployment by amending the various laws….I call upon the government, to without delay, find resources for immediate deployment of all pre-medical interns who have spent a full year idling and losing precious time since they cannot practice their professions without this mandatory requirement,” he said.
