On 6th November 2021, several medical interns under their umbrella, Federation of Uganda Medical Interns (FUMI) laid down tools demanding for payment of enhanced medical internship salaries.
Due to the ongoing strike that has hindered service delivery in hospital, the Ministry of Health has ordered all striking medical interns across Uganda to vacate hospital premises within one week.
The communication was passed by the Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary’s office after noticing that intern doctors are still residing in hospital premises yet they’re not working.
“Since the interns have now been away from their training sites for over 5 weeks, the ministry of health top management has decided that all medical interns on strike vacate the hospital premises within one week of the date of this letter to pave way for the new medical interns that are due to start in the year 2022,’’ the statement reads in part.
Ministry of Health has also remarked that the striking interns will receive payments for the period they were on duty.
“As soon as the enhancement of medical interns allowances are released by the ministry of finance planning and economic development, Ministry of Health will pay arrears up to the time medical interns went on strike. All those who went on strike will find their way of completing their second rotation in order to be signed off,’’ the statement concludes.
It should be noted that the President of Uganda instructed Ministry of Health and Ministry of Finance to increase allowances paid to medical interns from UGX 750,000 to UGX 2.5 million.
The increment was approved by the parliament in a supplementary budget and what is remaining is the release of funds from the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.
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