Govt extends deadline for medical interns to report to placement facilities

The extension follows an earlier warning by the minister that interns who failed to report to their assigned hospitals by August 14 risked losing their placements.

Baryomunsi had told Parliament last week that hospital directors would be required to provide the Ministry with lists of interns who had reported to their respective facilities.

“My message to the pre-interns is that we expect them to report, and on the 15th of this month, I will ask the directors of these hospitals to give me a list and an update on who has reported. Those who will not have reported will be considered to have forfeited their placement for internship,” Baryomunsi said on Wednesday last week.

With the deadline now extended to August 22, interns have been given an additional period to report before the Ministry takes action against those who remain absent.

The dispute over medical internships has been marked by growing tensions between the Government and interns over deployment arrangements, facilitation and working conditions.

Medical interns have raised concerns about the conditions under which they are expected to undertake their mandatory training, while the Government has maintained that completing an internship is a critical requirement for those seeking to practise as fully licensed medical professionals.

Baryomunsi said the Government had not ignored the concerns raised by the interns, noting that he had personally held a meeting with their leaders that lasted about six hours to discuss their grievances.

He, however, accused unnamed external forces of encouraging the interns not to report to their duty stations.

“I think the challenge that these young people are getting are external forces that advise them, ‘you lay down your tools, you don’t report,'” Baryomunsi said.

The minister urged the interns to report to their assigned facilities, stressing that internship is a mandatory transitional stage between completion of professional training and obtaining full licensing to practise.

“I must state that the interns need that internship if they are going to practise the professions in which they have trained,” he said.

Baryomunsi explained that internship provides newly qualified health professionals with practical experience under supervision before they can be fully licensed to practise independently.