Pass supplementary budget for doctors' pay - Opposition

PIC: Conservative Party President Ken Lukyamuzi, JEEMA political party president Asuman Basalirwa and FDC acting president Alice Alaso addressing the media at the FDC offices in Najjanankumbi on Monday. (Credit: Nancy Nanyonga)

LABOUR | DOCTORS STRIKE

Opposition leaders from different political parties have asked the Government to consider passing a supplementary budget to urgently address doctors' concerns before the situation gets out of hand.

The leaders argue that there is need for short and midterm measures to calm the situation alongside negotiations.

It is coming to two weeks since doctors went on a sit-down strike.

Addressing journalists at a joint press briefing at the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party headquarters, the leaders noted that issues of health are crucial to the entire country because they involve people's lives.

Those present included FDC's Alice Alaso, Conservative Party's Ken Lukyamuzi and JEEMA party's Asuman Basalirwa.

"If they have no money in the current budget, let them pass a supplementary budget. This is an emergency. They should start with increasing doctors' allowance facilitation, then formalise it later. Otherwise many innocent Ugandans will die at various health centres due to lack of services," Alaso noted.

She said the increasing strikes from public servants is an indication of a breakdown in service delivery. She said government needs to own up the failure and do what is required to rectify the situation.

Basalirwa asked the Government to stop threatening doctors because it will not improve service delivery.

"We are on the doctors' side because their demands are long overdue. The conditions they have been working in have not been good at all. If you threaten them, they will only be present at the facilities without doing anything. The Government needs to act wisely," he noted.     

Lukyamuzi (CP) asked government to respond urgently to the doctors concerns to protect people's lives.

"Even President Yoweri Museveni knows the importance of doctors because they used to treat him during the bush war. All our lives depend on these people. Just imagine the poor who can't afford private hospitals," he noted.