Supervisors of striking doctors to go on strike over pay

 Supervisors of striking doctors have vowed to lay down their tools next Tuesday if the government does not increase their salaries.
The 350 doctors, who are known as Medical Officers Special Grade (MOSG), want their monthly salary increased from Shs6 million to Shs11 million because of their heavy workload. 
MOSGs supervise Senior House Officers (SHOs), who are qualified doctors undergoing specialised training at graduate level while serving in hospitals. The SHOs have been on strike since Monday over the ministry’s failure to pay their allowances for the past six months. 

While addressing the media in Kampala yesterday, Dr Herbert Luswata, the secretary general of the Uganda Medical Association (UMA), said the amount of work the specialists do cannot be disregarded to the level of offering them the amount of money they currently earn.
“The difference in salary between the MOSG and a consultant is a whopping 102 percent and yet the two categories of specialist doctors have similar minimum qualifications and the only difference being the number of years in service (usually a minimum of three years as MOSG needed to become a consultant),” Dr Luswata said.
He added: “This discrepancy is extremely unrealistic, unfair, and demoralising to this category of specialists as it clearly disregards their set of qualifications in comparison to the latter group.”

Currently, a medical officer earns Shs5 million, MOSG earns Shs6 million and a medical consultant earns Shs12 million monthly, according to UMA. Before President Museveni recommended salary increments for medical workers, an MOSG was earning around Shs4.5 million monthly.
Currently, SHOs and medical interns, who, according to the Uganda Medical Association (UMA), carry around 70 percent of the workload in public facilities, are either partially available or not deployed. 
According to Dr Luswata, the government should provide Shs21 billion required to correct salary discrepancies for the MOSGs and medical interns, as part of the supplementary budget for interns and SHOs allowances in budget for the financial year 2023/2024.
Furthermore, the UMA secretary general also requested the government to change the names of MOSG to associate consultants.

 “This term has remained not only misleading, especially to policymakers, but does also degrade the medical specialists in this category and deserves to be changed to associate consultant given the fact that a specialist has the same qualifications as a consultant,” Dr Luswata said.
The MOSG term was initiated by the colonialists who used it to refer to locally trained specialists who were not recognised as consultants despite their qualifications.
When contacted, Mr Emmanuel Ainebyona, the Health ministry’s spokesperson, said the issues raised by MOSGs are supposed to be handled by the Ministry of Public Service.
“…all those are matters can be handled by their employer which is public service (salary, change of name and promotions),” he said .
Mr Ainebyoona added that the deployment of medical interns is under discussion before Parliament.

However, Ms Catherine Bitarakwate, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Public Service said: “We only comment on known salary schedules in the budget, so the issues of salary increment and promotions are done by the Ministry of Health.”
Dr Irene Asaba Mugisha, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon at Mulago Hospital, said: “Right now, Senior House Officers have laid down their tools and the interns are not on the ground because the government has failed to deploy them”.
She added: “So, I want the public to know that it’s the medical special grade officers, who are bearing the burden of all the work in these big centres you are seeing.”
Dr Asaba asked the government to promote them since most of them have been overworked for more than 10 years.
The threat from the MOSG comes amid protests by pre-interns who, according to UMA, have been waiting to be deployed for nine months.
Last week, pre-medical interns marched to Parliament and to the President’s office over delayed deployment.

About MOSG
A Medical Officers Special Grade (MOSG) is one who has attained a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) and Masters of Medicine degree (Mmed.) in different specialties such as surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, among others. To become an MOSG, one must have attained at least nine to 12 years of medical school while a medical officer is one who has spent around five years in school.