Medical lecturers and postgraduate students from Makerere College of Health Sciences (MakCHS) have insisted on not resuming with any work at Mulago hospital and its affiliates until they meet President Museveni.
When Museveni ordered for the indefinite closure of Makerere, all students and lecturers were chased from the campus. But because of manpower crisis at Mulago National Referral Hospital, lecturers and postgraduate medical students from MakCHS were called back by the education minister Ms Janet Museveni to come and assist in running the day-to-day activities of the hospital.
However, during their today’s meeting with the principal MakCHS, Prof Charles Ibingira, they said they cannot open in isolation since their colleagues in various other colleges at Makerere are still home.
During the meeting that took place in Davies Lecture Room at Mulago, lecturers only agreed to work after some “pertinent issues” have been discussed with President Museveni, and committee was selected to meet both the President and the First Lady in their different capacities.
But even after reaching this agreement, some lecturers still remained worried about how they can return to work while their colleagues are home and on strike.
“We have real issues on the table and we cannot entirely trust that the said committee will represent these issues to the best of our interests. This is Uganda and anything can happen in those meetings. Brown envelopes can be exchanged and this will jeopardise our position,” commented one of the doctors.
