Earlier today, a portion of medical interns who were scheduled to meet with Speaker Anita Among were prevented from entering Parliament.
They planned to petition the Speaker about their postponed deployment and the urgent need for an additional Shs18 billion in funding in order to send all qualified holders of medical degrees on internships.
Ten pre-medical interns, carrying placards protesting the delayed deployment, were stopped at Siad Barre Avenue on their way to parliament. Police refused to let them through, citing improper channels.
Medical interns are facing a one-year delay in deployment. Several eligible medical interns have expressed their disappointment that the Ministry of Health has not been able to place over a thousand of them .
Additionally, some sites are currently complaining that, despite the deployment of nurses and other cadres, they have not received any intern doctors as of yet. Despite this, they still want the government to provide them with intern doctors to support them.
On Friday last week, the Minister for Health Jane Ruth Aceng said budget of 35.6 billion shillings has been allocated for both groups, but the Ministry of Health reports that only 2,706 interns and 743 senior house officers are eligible for placement this year.
The Ministry has only been able to deploy about 1,000 interns, less 11,590,800,000 for senior house officers, and less Uganda shillings 670,800,000 for the 86 continuing interns who joined late, which is the last cohort. Only Uganda shillings 23,400,000,000 are available for the deployment of the current interns.
The Ministry attributes this shortfall to insufficient funding and shortage of specialist supervisors.
However, Uganda Medical Associations (UMA), fears that the number for deployment will soon be overwhelming as an extra 2,700 who will graduate by next year.
In order to address the situation, the Uganda Medical Association is pleading with the government for quick more funds.
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