Police disrupt nationwide strike by medical interns

Police yesterday fired teargas canisters to disperse and arrested at least nine pre-medical interns during their nationwide protests.  
The pre-interns were protesting the delayed deployment and the government’s plan to scrap the payment of allowances for some interns from private schemes or private medical institutions.  
Pre-medical interns are doctors, pharmacists, and nurses who have already graduated from medical school but need to undergo a one-year placement in the hospital to get permanent practising licence from their professional councils.
 
Some of them said they have been waiting for deployment for the last nine months in vain.  
Mr Luke Owoyesigyire, the deputy police spokesperson for Kampala Metropolitan Area, said the nine who were arrested in Kampala were detained at Wandegeya Police station on allegations of holding unlawful assembly.
“We have arrested nine pre-medical interns at Wandegeya Police Station, seven are male and two are female. They are detained on allegations of holding unlawful assembly, however, investigations are still on,” Mr Owoyesigyire said yesterday in a telephone interview with this publication.

However, by last night, the group had been released on police bond with the government promising to pay their allowances.
In Kampala, police authorities maintained that the demonstrations were staged illegally.
In Arua, Gulu and Kabale, police dispersed groups of pre-medical interns who staged demonstrations.  
Mr Herbert Aiko, the interns’ team leader in Gulu, said during a press briefing before the strike that scrapping off facilitation for their training of those on private sponsorship is not only malice by the government, but a disservice to the nation.
“We demand an urgent deployment of all medical pre-interns with pay, the interns are a critical workforce offering 75 percent of medical care, including emergencies and on-call coverage in our health system,” Mr Aiko said.

The protests comes four days after the meeting between leaders of the Uganda Medical Association (UMA) and the government officials at the Office of the Prime Minister failed to resolve the issues of the emolument of medics, which has contributed to the delayed deployment.
The Health ministry said they don’t have enough money to pay medical interns who, according to last year’s directive from the President, should be given monthly pay of Shs2.5 million or less for each. But they said plans are underway to deploy them.  
In last Thursday’s meeting, sources in UMA said the Prime Minister, Ms Robina Nabbanja, revealed a new policy, which among other things, restricts the payment of allowances to medical interns who have studied under a private scheme at the university or those who have studied from private universities.

However, the interns from private schemes shall only be receiving food allowances and other allowances, which include transport, one of the sources said, adding that accommodations and other basic needs will be self-sponsored by students. Previously, the government was paying for all interns.
In addition, the prime minister revealed that this compulsory supervised practice (internship) shall be considered as an extra year to a medical school degree, which is contrary to the current programme where medics attend it after graduating, a source said.

Kyankwanzi training 
The prime minister also added that all medics shall have to attend mandatory leadership and patriotism training in Kyankwanzi before they go out into the field of work, the source added.
Another source said Ms Nabbanja requested the pre-interns to go and work for free since the government does not have money to cater for their allowances. These proposals have not been received well by pre-medical interns and other doctors, who say the workload for interns in health facilities is heavy and they deserve the payment so that they get dedicated to serving patients.

Interns, according to UMA, carry around 60 percent of the workload in facilities partly because of the few doctors employed by the government. Their absence, UMA said is severely affecting service delivery in public hospitals through long long-waiting hours and limited attention. 
Specialists doctors and qualified doctors who are training to become specialists are also on strike over low pay and salary arrears, respectively.   
Despite yesterday’s arrests, pre-medical interns vowed to continue with their strikes until their needs are addressed. Before the arrests yesterday, one of the pre-medical interns was recorded on a police truck expressing her dissatisfaction over the decisions.
“As medical graduates, we are suffering at home, we graduated last year but they have not deployed us. We have done nothing but called journalists to address our pertinent issues to the public,” the pre-medical intern said.

Another pre-medical intern, who requested to remain anonymous in order to speak freely, requested the government to issue them a license of operation if they failed to deploy them.
“If they feel like they can’t deploy us, let them give us our license and we start working,” the pre-medical intern said.
Dr Allan Mugyenyi, another pre-intern from south-western Uganda, said: “When I finished October 27, 2022, about seven months ago, I had a plan of doing an internship and later be given a job, but now, I do not have funds, it has ruined me financially. I was renting a house and after four months I could no longer support myself.”  
Yesterday’s arrests and disruption of the protest were also not the first. There have been several running battles between pre-medical interns and police in Kampala over the Health Ministry’s failure to deploy them.

In a May 14 letter to the President, Dr Richard Idro, a neurologist and former president of UMA, said refusing to pay the interns is a bad idea that would affect service delivery.   
 “We shall be sending a poorly fed, hungry, and unhoused young lady, whose parents in Namutamba literally sold everything to see her through Mbarara University Medical School to Arua Hospital for her first six months of internship and then to Kabale Hospital for the next six months,” Dr Idro wrote.
“We expect her to rent herself a house, dress and feed herself, and at 3 am safely operate on a mother with obstructed labour or safely resuscitate a convulsing child the next morning!,” he wondered.

Compiled by Dorothy Nagitta, Robert Muhereza, Simon Peter Emwamu, Malik Fahad Jjingo, Tobbias Jolly Owiny, Clement Aluma, Felix Ainebyoona & Coslin Nakayiira