The Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Mr Mathias Mpuuga has castigated the Ministry of Health officials over what he described as discriminatory policies after government proposed to deploy pre-medical interns who can afford to “pay” for the internship placement “Asking pre-medical interns to pay for their internship is illegal.
It’s mandatory for Government to deploy the pre-medical interns with pay. The students who chose to pursue those professions did so on the representation of the laws of Uganda under the understanding that they will have to be paid for the mandatory practical work,” he said in a Thursday statement.
The Uganda Medical Association (UMA) also rejected the proposal describing it as “extremely dangerous, discriminatory, [and] not well thought through”, especially for those pre-medical interns who cannot afford to sustain themselves.
“…[this proposal] will yield inequality among the future health workers and will affect the quality of service and outcomes of treatments. Medical practice in Uganda should neither be a preserve of the rich nor should it push desperate future professional health workers into “healthcare slavery,” UMA said in the statement.
Medical interns are qualified doctors, pharmacists and nurses who need a one-year placement in hospitals to get permanent practising licences from their respective professional bodies. Some medical interns, according to information from UMA, have been waiting for deployment for more than 10 months now.
