Over 1,200 medical degree holders miss internship

The 12-month internship, which is expected to start next month, should be undertaken as a requirement for the new medical degree holders to get their permanent practising licence from their respective professional councils. 

Mr Joseph Odongo, one of the affected persons coordinating the degree holders, questioned the transparency in the deployment. Mr Odongo, who completed a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery at Makerere University this year, emphasised that the government should find ways to deploy them next month.

“Last month, the Ministry of Health told all the pre-medical interns across the country to go and register with their respective [professional] councils as we await deployment. And later, they invited us for an induction, but they didn’t release the official list of deployment for reasons we don’t know but they kept on telling us not to worry,” he narrated to our reporter yesterday.

He continued: “And during the induction meeting [on Monday at Makerere University], the Undersecretary in the Ministry of Health [Mr Kenneth Akiiri] told us how they have money to cater for about 2,500 interns.”

“He said they will deploy us and give us Shs1m [per month] because the money they have would not be enough to pay each intern Shs2.5m per month. Unfortunately, by evening, when they released the official list, they had only deployed 1,263, less than half the number that he promised,” he added. 

“So, we are wondering, why is there this discrepancy? He said they have received more money, that they have even increased the number of sites for internships,” Mr Odongo said.  

“Majority of people who have not been deployed are government-sponsored students. We don’t want the government to waste resources educating us then they say they don’t have money to deploy us,” he added.

However, Mr Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the Health ministry spokesperson, said they have prioritised people who completed their medical degree studies before 2024 because of the financial constraints. 

“The Ministry of Health is dealing with a backlog caused by the delayed deployment that was occasioned previously by the unavailability of funds as earlier anticipated,” he said.

He continued: “And indeed, when there was the contestation, where the medical interns were insisting on receiving allowance as directed by President Museveni, this has affected subsequent deployment because we have had the backlog of people who have missed out on internship, basically from 2022 and 2023, of which backlog we now have to deal with.”

“...So now, the students who have graduated in 2024 will be considered in the next financial year once the budget allows,” he added.  

Mr Akiiri, the Undersecretary in the ministry, said on Monday that they have Shs35b for between 2,300 and 2,500 people, who would be deployed for internship expected to start by August 5. 

Mr Ainebyoona also explained that the more than 2,000 people that Mr Akiiri said would be deployed for internship, include both degree holders (intern doctors, nurses and pharmacists) and senior house officers (SHOs) –people who are training to become specialists. 

He said in total, the ministry will use the available funds to pay allowances for 1,200 medical interns and 1,000 SHOs (a total of 2,300). He didn’t provide a breakdown of how the funds will be used. He also said the training hospitals are not inelastic and cited the need to regulate the number of students being trained in each of the universities. 

Prof Annet Nakimuli, the dean of the School of Medicine of Makerere University, told journalists that management is holding meetings to address this situation to ensure the affected people are deployed.

Last year, medical graduates and the Uganda Medical Association engaged in strikes over delayed deployment for internships because the Ministry of Health said the Finance ministry had not released enough money for the exercise. Some graduates said they were deployed after waiting for nearly a year. The deployment was done following the directive by the ministry that they should be paid Shs1m per month instead of the Shs2.5m which the President had directed earlier. The ministry said the government had not provided enough money.

Medical internship

The number of medical interns deployed this year is less than the 1,900 deployed last year. The interns are also essential in bridging the health service delivery gap in a country where the doctor-patient and the nurse-patient ratio is approximately 1:25,000 and 1:11,000 respectively, falling short of the international recommended doctor to patient ratio of 1:1000.