Members of Parliament on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) have threatened to withdraw their support towards the ministry of health if it does not resolve the issues of medical interns.
Hon. Medard Ssegona, the committee’s chairperson told the permanent secretary to ministry of health Dr. Diana Atwine not to expect any support if they don’t resolve the plight of medical interns.
“To inform you in advance, without resolving the issue of interns, don’t expect any support from Parliament. We are very resolved on the issue of interns because we know their contribution to the health sector,” he said.
Ssegona added that they (PAC) are committed to helping and supporting any efforts towards paying the medical interns.
In response, Dr. Diana Atwine said the ministry of health will have a meeting with the ministry of finance to find means of looking for funds to resolve the issues of medical interns such as delayed deployment.
“We have a meeting with the ministry of finance to continue discussing and engaging them to see how we can find some money so that we deploy interns,”she said.
The permanent secretary to the ministry of health said they are worried that the delayed deployment will cause more trouble in the future as they will have to cater for about 4000 interns, inclusive of which are those that are yet to graduate.
Atwine had appeared before the PAC on Thursday to answer to queries raised in the auditor general’s report 2021/22.
Last week Speaker Anita Among directed premier Robinah Nabbanja to address the issue of undeployed medical interns as fast as possible.
