Ugandan patients stranded as medical interns strike enters day 3

Patients across Uganda government health hospitals have been left stranded as medical interns continue to strike over allowances.

On Monday this week, the interns under their umbrella body; the Federation for Uganda Medical Interns (FUMI) laid down tools, demanding that government increase their allowances from 960,000 to Shs 3 million Ugandan Shillings and also provide them free housing.

Medical interns in Uganda provide a great service as the country’s patient-doctor ratio as recommended by the World Health Organisation is still low.

It is estimated that over 80 per cent of patients at hospitals are served by interns. URN visited several hospitals in Kampala and found that the work had stalled as a result of the strike.

At Mulago National Referral hospital, the children's ward was stuck with crying children and confused parents because there was no one there to assist them. A cleaner at the hospital said that there are no interns to help take samples for children for testing. Each ward usually has four medical interns.

At Kawempe General hospital, however, much as medical students acknowledge the absence of medical interns, they claim that their hospital has not been affected as their senior workers are available.

At Kiruddu and Naguru general hospitals, the lack of interns left many patients stranded. Amelia Amooti, a patient caretaker at Kiruddu hospital told us that she had been waiting for a doctor for eight hours to assist her father to have a dialysis session. Normally, her father has to wait for an hour before being attended to.

FUMI president Dr Mary Lilian Nabwire says that they have chosen to lay down tools because their pleas for a raise in allowances as promised before have been in vain. Parliament had earlier recommended that medical interns’ allowances be raised to Shs 3 million for doctors and Shs 2.2 million for nurses as gross income effective this financial year.

However, Dr Nabwire says that the Shs 35 billion which was to be added to their annual budget of Shs 12 billion was not included, implying that the recommendations were not absorbed into the budgeting process. The interns, therefore, agreed that they are not ready to work amidst poor conditions.

"Government has been promising us to increase our money but they have not. Other cadres got an increase but we were left out. When we wrote to them, they did not take us seriously yet the situation we are working under is hard. Interns are working hungry because the money they receive is not enough," Dr Nabwire said.

Dr Godfrey Mweru reports that the strike was inevitable because he is always financially strained especially by rent. He said the actual amount paid to them is actually Shs 750,000 and not Shs 960,000.