Doctors refuse to call off strike over unpaid allowances

 Senior House Officers (SHOs) have rejected a proposal from Parliament’s Health Committee to call off their ongoing strike over unpaid allowances. 
 SHOs, qualified senior medical doctors duly registered with the Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners Council, are undergoing postgraduate training to become specialists in various fields of medicine. 
The officers appeared before the committee yesterday.  
The Padyere County MP Isaac Ismail Otimgiw told the team that the committee chairperson Mr Charles Ayume (Koboko Municipality), had asked him to tell the doctors to call off the strike. 

The officers started the strike on Monday over unpaid allowances for the past six months. 
 “I have been in touch with Dr Ayume actually on WhatsApp and his final plea is to give the Health Committee an opportunity to resolve this problem and in return would like to kindly request you to call off the strike with immediate effect.’’
 But some of the SHOs shook their heads in disapproval while others grumbled after hearing the message.
 Sighting the unrest, Mr Otimgiw adjourned the interface for three minute.
 When the meeting resumed,  an emotional Dr Robert Lubega, the president of the Senior Health Officer (SHO), informed the committee that the strike could not be called off. 
 “These resolutions that we are discussing today (yesterday) were [made] by a national General Assembly, so, as leaders, we have no powers to call off this strike. We are just messengers,” he said. 

 Dr Lubega added: “We have written letters, but no one responds back. You call people and they do not pick. We send them WhatsApp [messages] but no one responds. So, we cannot take back empty words to our colleagues and tell them, “you angry people, we have called off the strike.”
 The SHOs thereafter requested the committee to organise a meeting with concerned ministries and stakeholders to try and put the matter to bed. 
 “We request this humble committee to organise a meeting with all the concerned ministries [including] Health, Finance and Education including our stakeholders, our mother Uganda Medical Association (UMA) and we shall be happy to take back whatever resolutions [that] come out of that meeting and present them to the General Assembly,” Dr Lubega said. 

 The committee resolved to arrange a meeting with the respective parties today. 
 The government committed to pay senior health officers a monthly allowance of Shs2.5 million but the pledge has not yet been fulfilled since October last year. 
Dr Lubega, however,  told lawmakers he is not certain of the number of senior health officers.
Meanwhile, the UMA president, Dr Edith Nakku-Joloba, wants a health workforce planning committee set up within six months to make recommendations for a longtime solution to minimise the  perennial strikes.

Ministry’s  view
On February 20, Dr Diana Atwine, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health, said   the unpredictable number of senior health officers that the ministry receives every year has made it hard for the government to plan for them.
 She said  the ministry currently receives lists of senior health officers and interns that are completely outside the range of the budgeted funds, which has impeded prompt payment of  their allowances.