Monday morning of 24th April, 2023 witnessed Police in Kampala contest with medical interns protesting at Parliament over Ministry of Health’s failure to deploy them to government hospitals.
Several medics are still under police custody as arrests marred the march towards the legislature. The group of interns had gone to Parliament to meet the Speaker of Parliament over their delayed deployment to their training facilities.
The police, along with the army, also blocked a group of medical interns at the gate of Galloway House in Mulago as they attempted to take to the streets in protest of their need to be deployed for work.
Police dispersed and violently arrested about a dozen of these interns as they sought intervention in multiple issues regarding their welfare.
The demonstration of the medical interns came amidst the ongoing social media campaign dubbed Uganda Health Exhibition.
The campaign which has been running for some days is aimed at projecting critical issues in Uganda’s health sector.
In their argument, the interns suggest that if the government cannot afford to deploy and offer allowances to the thousands released into internship annually, they should give private entities a green light to do so.
The new interns were supposed to be deployed at the over thirty internship sites by April 1 2023 but according to a circular by Dr. Henry Mwebesa the Director General of Health Services to Directors of hospitals, the one-year training will commence later on after ironing out key issues with the training that they are still consulting on.
Today’s arrests have attracted public outcry with netizens calling out the Ministry of Health and government at large for failing to address the matter amicably.
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