Government plans to improve doctors’ working state
What you need to know:
Health. Some of the plans include constructing staff houses and equipping health centres.
Kampala
The Minister of Health, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, has urged health workers to stay and work in the country promising that the government was planning to improve their working conditions.
The call comes after the Daily Monitor on Monday reported that about 2,000 medical doctors were leaving the country, creating shortage of practitioners.
Although he did not specify which conditions needed improvement immediately, Dr Rugunda said plans to renovate and equip health facilities as well as construct staff houses were underway. He was speaking at the opening ceremony of the 3rd Medical Education Partnership Initiative (Mepi)symposium in Kampala yesterday.
The conference draws medical professionals and policy makers from across Africa and the US to review the initiatives’ progress. The project seeks to increase in-country expertise and capacity, improve the quality of medical workers and retain them.
The principal at the College of Health Sciences Makerere University, Prof Nelson Sewankambo, said although training health workers was key to increasing numbers, the country was not achieving the target since the trained ones leave.
“We are not achieving the right numbers. Every year we train but some leave and sometimes it is the very committed ones because they are frustrated by the working conditions,” Prof Sewankambo told Journalist yesterday.
The US Global coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby said: “We strongly believe that through Mepi, we can help strengthen the medical expertise and capacity of our partner countries and empower them to assume greater ownership of their health programmes.”
The envoy to the UN, Mr Richard Nduhura, also announced that the government had allocated funds to kick start the newly created medical school at Busitema University. Mr Nduhura said plans to start another medical school in Soroti District were still in infant stages.
