Medical students have termed the new internship policy for doctors set by the Ministry of Health as unfair.
The medical students are angered because the new policy which states that sponsored medical students will only get facilitation/allowances during internship if they accept to do two years mandatory public service in district hospitals while private sponsored students will do a one year internship with no pay.
“They want to force doctors to work for government. If you don’t want to facilitate us, then we won’t work completely,” one Esele, a medical finalist cried out.
It should however be noted that over the years, doctors on the internship programme, who have just completed 5 years of medical school provide the labour force for most hospitals nationwide for a 12 month duration in order to get their practicing license as per the status quo.
“The health sector in Uganda is one of the least prioritised in the country. The Ministry of Health has come up with an unjust policy meant to affect intern doctors come September,2016 ( PS: Interns should have started work in August, 2016 so hospitals are currently struggling).
This is blackmail for the state sponsored students and slavery for the private students who will all serve the same Ugandan citizens,” stated Dr. Obuku of the Uganda Medical Association.
Below are hashtags making rounds on social media platforms.
#InternsNotSlaves
#EqualPayForAllInterns
