The Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) has asked the Government to drop the looming medical internship policy saying it would help develop the country's health sector. 

Party spokesperson, Sharon Arach Oyat, said the policy proposal will undermine the health sector, especially at a time when it is engulfed with several challenges including understaffing, distant health outlets and insufficient medical drugs and equipment. 

“These challenges make it difficult for our people (patients) to access medical examination and treatment,” she said. 

Arach was addressing the press during the party’s weekly briefing at its Uganda House headquarters in Kampala. 

She urged the Government to continue playing its role of funding such productive programs like pre-medical interns who could champion health aspects during pandemic outbreaks. 

“The policy by the government which will have private medical interns fund their transport, accommodation and basic needs as it only provides food allowances, is controversial and will undermine the health sector,” she said. 

Arach argued that medical training and studies are inherently expensive and a few students will manage to graduate leading to a smaller pool of professionals if the Government does not come to their assistance. 

She added that most government hospitals are dominated by interns who need to be produced on a large scale and create attractive conditions for retaining them because they help in attending to many patients at a time when the ratio of doctors to patients is still low. 

“The Government should focus on improving the conditions of medical staff and interns by giving them special attention which will drastically reduce the number of cases of patients referred for overseas treatment,” she said. 

Background 

The long-running saga of medical staff/interns seeking better pay has on several occasions invited dialogue between the government and medical bodies to improve the conditions of staff through enhanced salaries. 

A nine-member committee was on May 4, 2023, set up to draft an internship policy aimed at mitigating medical interns’ strikes witnessed over the past few years. 

State Minister for Higher Education, John Chrysostom Muyingo, noted that the policy will cover all health professionals and urged Parliament to support the ministry in mobilising funds to implement the policy once approved. 

He also hinted at unclear regulations right from admission, internship and licensing of medical students as the leading cause for strikes by medical interns. 

The executive director of the National Council for Higher Education, Prof. Mary Okwakol, said there are lacunas in the training of health workers that the policy will also address. 

The committee applauded the move to draft an internship policy and recommended that it should be informed by as many views as possible. 

"As a committee, we want to promote sciences as per the President's recommendations. We want you to maintain allowances for interns, and as a committee, we can be involved in the drafting process," said the committee vice-chairperson, Joel Ssebikali. 

Padyere County MP, Isaac Otimgiw, said there is a need for the government to urgently pay the medical interns and community health officers as it drafts the policy. 

He stated the Ministry of Health requires sh80bn to pay all interns and CHOs but has been allocated only sh8bn in the 2023/24 financial year. 

A section of legislators proposed that the government should come up with incentives to motivate interns, citing referral hospitals that give additional pay to motivate interns. 

“I remember a hospital like Lacor in Gulu district used to attract interns, we used to look forward to working there, because they used to pay interns some token,” said George Bhoka Didi (NRM, Obongi County).