Doctors working in Public Hospitals now have a a good reason to celebrate the festivities after assurance from the government that their demands will be met before Christmas
During plenary on Thursday the State Minister for Finance, Henry Musasizi, assured legislators that his Ministry had released 35.2 billion shillings to fulfill pledges including unpaid allowances and salary enhancement for medical interns and senior doctors.
He stated that the money should be deposited in their accounts not later than next week and before Christmas.
“There is a process we follow after passing that 35 billion shillings,today we received a request from the Ministry of Health to and by the close of business today it should be handled ,I want to believe that by the time we break for Christmas,the medical interns should have been paid,” Musasizi said
Besides that,the Minister for ICT Dr. Chris Baryomunsi said the government was still considering dropping a decision to vacate practicing intern doctors. He explained that the decision will be announced today after a meeting with stakeholders.
“There have been engagements and the Ministry of health and the Forum for interns and they requested for a meeting which will happen with the Director General of Health Services (Mwebasa) and UMA to discuss these same issues .So there is no need to worry because they have also indicated that they will start work normally on Monday,” He said
Intern doctors have been on strike since November 6, when they laid down tools citing poor working conditions, unpaid allowances and mediocre pay. Over 1,400 medical intern doctors went on a sit down strike demanding that the government increase the budget for their facilitation from the current Shs 11.4 billion to Shs 35 billion in the next financial year in addition to providing decent accommodation.
Doctors under the Uganda Medical Association (UMA) also went on strike on November 22 over unfulfilled promises. The doctors asked the government to fill more than 40 percent of the vacant posts in public health facilities, increase the pay of intern doctors to 2.5 Million Shillings as directed by the President.
Other demands include compensating the families of health workers who succumbed to COVID-19 and to provide medical supplies like oxygen in health facilities and including medical interns and senior house officers on the public service salary structure.
