Parliamentary committee on health has recommended that medical students do pre-internship examinations before being deployed.
In the report presented to parliament by the committee’s chairperson Hon. Ayume Charles on July 5th, the health committee recommended that medical students do examinations prior internship.
The committee also recommended that ministries of health and education set a fixed number of interns to sponsor each year depending on their performance.
The report follows a 24th April petition to speaker of parliament Hon. Anita Among by a section of undeployed interns over their delayed deployment.
The issue of medical interns was however contested by some members of parliament such as Hon. Aisha Kabanda (Woman MP Butambala district).
According to the state minister for primary education Dr. Moriku Joyce, the exams is for only specific categories of people and doesn’t cut across. The pre-internship examinations will be done by medical students not from commonwealth countries.
The committee on health noted that the number of medical interns has proliferated over the past 7 years with the current figure standing at 1901. This increment has come with a financial burden thus leading to delayed deployment of medical interns.
However, in a seemingly controversial opinion, deputy speaker of parliament Thomas Tayebwa advised the ministry of health to use the money meant to pay interns to employ them in their respective localities.
Tayebwa argued that it is pointless to pay interns for a year and send them to the streets after due to lack of capacity to employ them.
Parliament adopted the report by the committee on health and the health ministry is expected to implement the recommendations therein immediately.
