MOH Reacts Following Medical Interns, SHO’s Strike

By Phillipa Among On May 5, 2023 1,203

The Ministry of health this week released a statement following a decision by medical interns and Senior House Officers also known as senior medical doctors to lay down their tools over unpaid allowances.

Over 600 medical personnel went on strike on Sunday over delays 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 SHO’s Chief Resident, Dr. Robert Lubega, stated at a news conference on Sunday that the government lacked the will to pay their allowances.

During a recent parliamentary Health Committee meeting, they were informed that the Ministry of Finance had allocated only Shillings 10.2 billion to cater for medical interns and SHO allowances for the Financial Year 2023/24.

This to them was less by approximately Shillings 70 billion of the Shillings 80.5 billion budget earlier proposed by the Ministry of Health to cater for all trainee doctors’ allowances.

Dr. Lubega argues that the 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 a statement released on their official twitter handles on May 02, 2023, the Ministry writes that they have officially written to the Ministry of Finance over the concerns of aggrieved medical workers and expect a response.

‘The @MinofHealthUG submitted a request to @mofpedU for funds to pay the arrears of interns and SHOs. We await positive feedback from MOFPED to ensure this is cleared. #UgandaHealthExhibition” the statement reads

On the issue of deploying intern doctors at various health facilities, the Health Ministry stated that they are hesitant to commit until resources to cater for their allowances are made available.

“In order to avoid a similar scenario, the current deployment of interns has been delayed as we await commitment on the availability of the required resources to cater for their allowances. This has been presented for discussion to Cabinet,” the MOH states further.

Dr. Othiniel Musana, the President of the Gynaecologists and Obstetricians Association of Uganda, has expressed concern 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.

During Plenary on Wednesday this week, the Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon Anita Among urged the government to deploy intern doctors and make funds available for their allowances to avoid absenteeism.

Among expressed her concern over the lack of health workers at health facilities, attributing it to a lack of motivation caused by a lack of funds.

Referring to the recent social media campaign #HealthSectorExhibition, Among called on the government to provide adequate funding for the health sector and to deploy intern doctors to help address the shortage.

Among noted that failure to deploy intern doctors not only leads to a shortage of qualified medical personnel but also means that the interns cannot practice as doctors.

One of thew Mps, Hon. Michael Bukenya (NRM, Bukuya County) said that there are over 2000 interns countrywide who are transitioning to become doctors but are currently stranded with pay and deployment.

In 2016, President Yoweri Museveni approved a monthly allowance of 2.5 million Shillings for specialist doctors, stating that not paying them was an act of modern-day slavery.

This development comes as other health workers ‘medical doctors special grade’ have threatened to lay down their tools by May 09, 2023, should parliament fail to put their demands on the Order paper for consideration on Monday.

The medical doctors special grade want their name automatically changed to ‘associate consultants’ and for parliament to approve an increase for their pay from the current 6 million to 11 million shillings in the 2023/2024 financial year.