Mulago Hospital medical interns call off strike

By John Masaba

Mulago Hospital student medical doctors have called off a strike and returned to their duty stations.

Over 200 interns comprising of nurses, doctors and pharmacists laid down their tools last Friday protesting the government’s delay in paying their allowances.

Each medical student on internship is entitled to a sh600,000 monthly allowances. But some of the interns said last week that they were last paid allowances two months ago. The interns had vowed not to return to work until all their monies are deposited on their accounts.

However, by Wednesday many were back on duty in the several wards at the hospital.

Joseph Nsubuga, the president of pharmacist interns, told New Vision that all pharmacist interns were back on duty.

“The pharmacy department is a very crucial. We can’t stay away for too long because we shall be putting hundreds of patients in the hospital in jeopardy,” he said.

He said some of their colleagues in the other departments were yet to return but hoped all interns would be back to work.    

Mulago Hospital spokesperson, Enoch Kusasira, said that all the wards were functioning normally. “The problem has been sorted,” he said.
 
Kusasira said the problem occurred because the salaries for the interns were deposited on the wrong accounts, but the money had been re-channeled to the right accounts.

Interns are usually assigned to work as auxiliary staff in each of the wards which include the obstetrics and gynaecology, pediatrics’, surgery and general medicine.