A group of recent medical graduates from various universities are expressing their concern of not being to this year’s internship placement by the ministry of health. The group consists of three groups of medical students from bachelor of pharmacy, bachelor of medicine and surgery and bachelor of nursing interns as designed by the ministry of health.
According to Ivan Ekibwoine a pharmacy graduate from KIU, this batch of interns in waiting includes bachelor of pharmacy interns who already passed their eligibility pre-internship examinations way back in February and have been waiting to be placed by the ministry to start their internship in October, these are both from Ugandan universities and also international students.
“What put us down is that, yes, COVID-19 set in and academic institutions were closed and our colleagues whom we were supposed to join internship in October with have never completed their courses yet but it could be so bad for us who are already eligible for internship when we are not placed by the ministry of health for internship on allegations that there are no interns at all to be placed October internship yet the current batch of interns is supposed to stop in September,’’ He worried.
Two weeks ago, the Minister of health Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng said that there are no interns in waiting to replace the current batch of interns who are yet to stop in September. She added that the ministry will enter into a temporary contract with the current interns to cover up this.
“What we agree is that yes our number is not big enough like the past since our colleagues never completed their courses also to be eligible to be placed in October for internship due to COVID-19 but it will be not right not to consider us for internship placement in October yet we have waited for now closing in to a year ever since we completed our courses. We request the ministry considers us for placement soonest,’’ Ivan appealed.
