Government resolves to pay medical interns, striking doctors

This reporter has since learnt that Government directed Ministry of Finance to find funds to pay medical interns, striking doctors and also ordered them to get back to work effective immediately.

The Uganda Medical Association (UMA) secretary-general, Dr. Herbert Luswata, however, told KFM, a radio station in Uganda, that they will determine the fate of the strike after meeting officials from the Ministry of Health.

Luswata further revealed that the salary disparity issues raised by medical officers special grade whose new title of Associate Consultants was approved in a high-level meeting last week was not discussed by Cabinet.

“Information we got from the Ministry of Health is that the cabinet was able to approve the payment of allowances to medical interns and to ensure that they are deployed and also approved to ensure that there is payment of allowances to Senior House Officers,” Dr. Luswata said.

Senior medical doctors and associate consultants have been on strike over pay disparities, title disputes, as well as failure by the Government to pay their allowances.

The doctors had previously gone on strike in March for three weeks due to the same issue. The Senior Medical Doctor’s Chief Resident, Dr. Robert Lubega, stated at a news conference last month that Government lacked the will to pay their allowances.

UMA recently attended a Parliamentary Health Committee meeting where they learned that the Ministry of Finance had allocated only sh10.2b to cater for medical interns and senior doctors’ allowances for the financial year 2023/24.

This represents a shortfall of approximately sh70b of the sh80.5b budget earlier proposed by the Ministry of Health to cater for all trainee doctors’ allowances.

Dr. Lubega argued that Government’s inability to pay their allowances shows a lack of will, especially as some doctors have not received any allowances since November despite working under deplorable conditions.

In 2016, President Yoweri Museveni approved a monthly allowance of sh2.5m for specialist doctors, stating that not paying them was an act of modern-day slavery. However, Dr. Othiniel Musana, the President of the Gynaecologists and Obstetricians Association of Uganda, expressed concerns over the strike, considering that hospitals were already short-staffed as intern doctors, who make up over 70% of the human resource for doctors, were yet to be deployed.

The Ministry of Health had previously indicated that senior doctors were not budgeted for, but Permanent Secretary Dr. Diana Atwine revealed that they were in consultations with the Ministry of Education to come up with a permanent solution for SHOs and medical intern’s pay.

However, senior doctors and members of the UMA claim that it is only a matter of prioritisation as doctors’ numbers can be tracked from when they join medical school.

Dr. Frank Asiimwe Rubabinda, the President of the Association of Surgeons of Uganda, suggested that the Government should consider screening private hospitals that are able to provide training and have the right human resource and equipment.

The strike comes at a time when Uganda’s health sector is under scrutiny due to the exposure of a rundown health service in a recent online exhibition.