There is panic among patients across the country after a total of 970 intern doctors decided to withdraw their services from 35 public hospitals and Health Centres, due to delayed payments of their upkeep allowances.
The decision was announced by Dr. Robert Lubega, the president of the Uganda Medical Interns in Uganda, during a press conference held at Mulago Hospital Guest House in Kampala today.
A furious Lubega told the press that efforts to engage authorities on the matter have proved futile and that the interns propose that an internship policy is put in place that to capture their issues the in the health ministry system in order to resolve endless industrial action by the interns.
Each intern doctor in Uganda is entitled to a gross monthly pay of 950,000 Shillings. However, they have not been paid allowances for the month of January 2018. About 60 of them have also not received payments since December 2017.
The Intern Doctors association publicist Aaron Nahabwe, says majority of interns walk long distances to hospitals because they have not been facilitated.
He appealed to the government to speed up the payments for medical interns' allowances in order for them to be able to return to work.
However, Sarah Achieng Opendi, the State Minister of Health for General Duties calls on the medical interns to be patient with the ministry as the internship policy is formulated.
Dr. Opendi says that the government has already made payments to medical interns for this quota and that they should be able to receive their payments by end of this week or early next week.
The impatient interna however say they want government to ensure stable medical supplies if they are to return to work. While Minister Opendi admits inadequate supplies, she says the majority of the issues are to be addressed in the coming budget.
