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Pre-medical interns move to sue govt over their failed deployment
A male pre-medical intern reacts following his arrest during a protest in Kampala on April 24, 2023. PHOTO/ABUBAKER LUBOWA
What you need to know:
- If court grants their suit, the accusers intend to “ask for orders directing the ministry of health to deploy them as soon as possible in order to mitigate an existing labour crisis.”
Pre-medical intern Tuesday petitioned court seeking permission to file a representative suit against the government which they accuse of refusing to deploy them.
In their suit filed before the High Court's Civil Division, the group led by Dr Judith Nalukwago and three others want court to permit them to sue the Ministry of Health and the Attorney General amidst a common interest to cause action against what they termed as “violation of their rights.”
Other petitioners are Bill Adrati, Wycliff Ainamatsiko and David Mugyema.
“The applicants herein, there are over 1,360 members of the represented class and it would be impracticable to join all of them in the intended suit as applicants,” reads in part the court document.
According to the court document, the 1,360 members are all individuals whose names have been submitted to the ministry of health by their respective professional councils for deployment as medical interns.
“The respondents violated the constitutional rights, breached statutory and common law duties it owed to the applicants and all other members of the represented class as medical pre-interns; and that the reliefs sought in the intended suit are by and large of a declaratory and directory in nature and thus beneficial to all members of the represented class,” the court document seen by Monitor states.
In support of their suit, Dr Nalukwago in her affidavit states that they consist of medical doctors, nurses, midwives and pharmacists who intend to challenge the ministry of health’s directive for medical interns to self-sponsor their internship on grounds that government has no money to cater for their allowances.
The complainants have in their petition explained that that the said allowances peviously paid by government help them to meet living costs as most of them claim to come from poor backgrounds.
They further contend that the non deployment does not only threaten their right to employment but also implies that they cannot obtain a medical practising certificate without having a mandatory one-year internship experience.
The complainants also indicated that their absence from internship affects service delivery in public hospitals since they constitute 60% of the human resource in such health facilities.
They also accuse the ministry of health of violating their right to further education and attaining higher qualifications in their respective medical fields as internship is a pre-requisite to education advancement.
If court grants their suit, the accusers intend to “ask for orders directing the ministry of health to deploy them as soon as possible in order to mitigate an existing labour crisis.”
By press time, the accused (ministry of health and attorney general) were yet to respond t to the student’s application for a representative suit.
