Young doctors are still unsure about the start of their training despite commitments by the Ministry of Finance that the government will soon resolve their issues.
When reading the 2023/2024 budget speech to parliament on Thursday, Finance Minister Matia Kasaija made commitments that were seen as a sigh of relief to a group of doctors who have for two months been agitating for training deployment and pay.
“Government will in the next few weeks resolve the plight of medical interns and doctors designated as senior house officers, in view of their important role in supporting the healthcare system,” he said, adding that the Ministry had provided 22.6 billion Shilling to clear outstanding arrears for medical interns and senior house officers for the financial year ending June 2023.
But Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the Spokesperson of the Ministry of Health, which is mandated to allocate the trainee’s hospitals said they are waiting to hear from their counterparts, in Finance. The ministry had earlier indicated that they would need up to 80 billion Shillings to deploy the interns, but doctors under their umbrella Uganda Medical Association now say that interns should be deployed whether this money is currently available or not.
In an interview with URN this morning, Dr Herbert Luswata the Association Secretary General said considering the time loss and the fact that very soon another cohort of doctors currently in their final year will be graduating into the internship, the Health Ministry should just release contracts which will act as a commitment on the side of government that arrears will be paid.
Already, the government has piled up arrears from the group of interns who finished training in March in addition to Senior House Officers, graduate doctors who are training to specialize in different medical disciplines ranging from gynaecology, paediatrics and orthopaedics among others.
These are entitled to a monthly allowance of 2.5 million Shillings. According to their representative Dr Robert Lubega, some of his colleagues have not received a penny since November 2022 when they were deployed while others are demanding between three to five months in arrears. To be fully paid, he estimates that the arrears can go to the high of 11 billion Shillings.
Meanwhile, the cohort of interns who completed in March, are still demanding allowances despite completing their training three months ago. Each Intern is entitled to a monthly pay of 2.4 million Shillings.
Dr Musa Lumumba, the President of the Federation for Uganda Medical Interns told URN that his cohort was last paid in February. “We are all demanding March but it has been passed in the budget. We hope it will be paid this June”, he told URN.
However, Jim Mugunga, the Spokesperson in the Ministry of Finance clarified that the provided 22.6 billion Shillings is not just for the arrears; part of it will be used to fund the deployment of interns, although he added that they have not yet fully resolved on how to go about it.
Mugunga declined to reveal how much they are exactly looking at allocating the doctors although Luswata says their discussions with the ministry last settled for at least 80 billion Shillings.
“The Finance Ministry said they were waiting for the cabinet extract to allocate the 80 billion Shillings but we also heard from the Health Committee that they had allocated 30 billion Shillings”.
On his part, Lubega who represents Senior House Officers says they only hope that government will fast-track the supplementary budget to be able to pay interns and senior house officers in the next financial year.
For now, Luswata says they are not even certain how much in total doctors are demanding from the government even as they continue to push for pay and deployment.