Pay medical interns, Cabinet tells Finance

Medical interns are doctors, pharmacists, and nurses who have already graduated from medical school but need to undergo  one-year placement in the hospital to get a permanent practising license from their professional councils. 

Some of the pre-medical interns said they have been waiting for deployment for the last nine months in vain, the wait which has seen them hold protests across the country in recent weeks.

Dr Diana Atwine, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Health, yesterday said the resolution was made following their presentation before Cabinet. 

“Yesterday (Monday), we had a meeting in Cabinet, we presented our challenges and they have tasked finance to go back and find ways of getting this money –if it means suppressing other activities it should be done because this is a priority for us,” she said.

Dr Atwine said following this resolution, the Ministry of Health is “waiting to hear from Finance [Ministry]” before the interns are deployed.

Interns, according to UMA, carry around 60 percent of the workload in facilities partly because of the few doctors employed by the government. Their absence, UMA said, is severely affecting service delivery in public hospitals through long-waiting hours and limited attention. 

Specialist doctors and qualified doctors who are training to become specialists are also on strike over low pay and salary arrears. The ratio of doctors to population is 1:20,000, a figure which UMA said falls short of the World Health Organisation of 1 doctor 1,000 people to guarantee ease of access to life-saving care. 

Dr Herbert Luswata, the secretary general of UMA, yesterday welcomed the resolution and said he would meet Dr Atwine to find details.

“This news has found us here fighting for the freedom of our colleagues pending release. We are still at Wandegeya Police Station. God is Great!” said Dr David Mugyema, a member of UMA.

The Monday resolution came hours after police dispersed and arrested some pre-medical interns who were protesting delayed deployment and plans by the government to scrap their allowances.  

Dr Atwine explained yesterday that her Ministry did not propose the scrapping of the allowance for interns and Senior House Officers (SHOs). SHOs are qualified doctors who are training to become specialists while working in hospitals. Dr Atwine said the cabinet resolution also caters for SHOs.  

“Our interest is to see these young people [medical interns] deployed, they train, finish, and go and make a living as they grow in their profession. Only one hindrance was standing in the way –availability of funds,” Dr Atwine said.

The permanent secretary said the fund is meant to pay for the time the interns spend in the hospital handling patients. 

“But also, the money is not a salary, it is an allowance for their living. It is what they use to buy food and pay for rent because we don’t have enough houses [in hospitals],” she said. 

On the previous plan to erase the pay, Dr Atwine said they are going to continually engage with the Ministry of Education to regulate the number of medical students.

She said this help the Ministry to effectively pay, deploy, and train them properly because when they are overcrowded, it impacts on their learning outcomes.  

Mr Henry Musasizi, the State Minister for Finance in charge of general duties, said he was in a meeting when our reporter called him yesterday. The other ministers at Finance could not be reached for comments by press time.

Asked when the money will be released, Mr Jim Mugunga, the spokesperson of the Finance Ministry, said the Health Ministry provide more details if they volunteered information from Cabinet. 

“I am not privy to cabinet decisions....What I can say is that as a Ministry we implement policy and executive direction as formally communicated through official channels,” he said.