Intern doctors deny forming Pressure Group.
Intern doctor have denied recent reports, that they formed a pressure group dubbed Un-Deployed Intern Pressure Group, to push for their deployment.
The President Uganda Medical Association, Dr. Herbert Luswata, says there was misinterpretation of the intern doctors actions last week, where they warned government about failure to redeploy them as having subsequent decline in health care quality, due to the critical shortage of doctors in government hospitals.
“Those are Un-deployed intern doctors and pharmacists, who were expressing their frustration and dissatisfaction but not a pressure group.”
On Thursday August 8, 2024 intern doctors from different universities in the country, attempted to match to parliament, in protest of their delayed deployment to different health training centers, but were barred by security operatives.
Prior to the attempted match to the parliament, the intern doctors had attempted to demonstrate outside the Ministry of Health,Head Offices in Kampala, but were barred by security operatives.
In response to the intern doctors concerns, parliament insisted that government with immediate effect finds money to redeploy them.
“Parliament had agreed on providing a supplementary budget for the re-deployment, and the last I heard from them is that, they were yet to discuss the issue with cabinet and we are patiently waiting to hear from them.” Dr. Luswata said
Human rights activists are thinking of seeking court’s intervention into the matter.
“The defenders for Health and Human rights were planning to take the case to court on our behalf, but I am yet to confirm with them on the progress made.” He said.
As per their mandate, Uganda Medical Association has a role to play in assisting with Policy formulation through the committee of Health of Parliament; including; Internship doctors’ policy that aligns the criteria of internship and the Senior House Officer (SHO) regulation, which helps the training of doctors in Masters programs as well as advocating for the wellbeing of the doctors.
Joselyn Nakitto is a staff writer at SML News Ug with passion in health, business, and current affairs. She can be contacted on 0709603158
