By Leonard Kamugisha Akida,
KAMPALA:
Following the letter to stop all medical interns in government hospitals by the director general health servi es at the ministry of health Dr. Henry Mwebesa, over continued strike demanding for a batter welfare, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has asked all intern Doctors to take legal actions and sue Dr. Mwebeesa and his group.
“Our advice to all intern doctors in government hospitals is that they should take legal actions against those illegally and unconstitutionally stopping you from demanding what is due to them,” FDC urged.
Speaking to journalists at the party headquarters at Najjanankumbi on Monday, John Kikonyogo, the party Deputy Spokesperson said it is illegal and unreasonable for the ministry to stop Intern Doctors who are demanding for what is due to them.
“The fdc believes that the sacking of medical interns by Dr. Mwebeesa is illegal and unconstitutional because no Ugandan should be punished for protesting for what is due to him/her,” FDC said.
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FDC demands that Dr. Mwebeesa shows to the public the letters he wrote to the ministry of health, and ministry of finance addressing the issue of intern Doctors and another letter to President Museveni informing him that the money he directed has not been released.
They asked Ugandans to join intern doctors and the doctors fraternity in demanding for their better medical services noting that the people fighting for them are getting tired.
“The people of Uganda should come out and fight for these young doctors. If you dont you will be the ones to blame because when you take your patients to the hospitals and no doctor attends to them, you will be complaining that doctors are not doing their jobs. If you don’t join them, the net looser is you,” FDC implored.
The FDC has further warned against the intimidation of workers by the government.
Intern Doctors Strike:
Since November 6, over 1,403 medical interns, working in 42 hospitals enacted an industrial strike due to meager payments and patiable working conditions.
The Federation for Uganda Medical Interns demanded that government pays a monthly wage hike from Shs 750,000 to Shs 3m to doctors, pharmacists and grduate nurses from Shs 750,000 to Shs 2.2 million respectively.
However, after a metting with president Museveni, he directed that they should be paid Shs 2.5 million per month which promise has not been fulfilled todate.
This prompted medical interns to demand for the fulfilment of the presidential directive and were conjoined to the senior doctor’s who claim their welfare and state of the facilities they are working in is wanting.
The Sacking:
Last week, the ministry of health directorgeneral of health services, Dr. Henry Mwebesa wrote a letter to all government hospitals ordering them to fire all medical interns who are currently on strike.
Mwebesa gave all the striking interns one week to vacate government hospitals and pave way for the new cohort of interns.
Pre-Intern Students Speak out
Although Dr. Mwebesa said in a letter that the directive to stop intern doctors is to pave way to admission of pre-intern students, the students under their umbrella, Federation of Uganda Medical Interns (FUMI) on Sunday announced that they will not conduct their internship unless government first fulfill the promises it meade to the current interns.
They announced a nationwide boycott of all government hospitals in support of their senior colleagues who were fired last week.
The meeting that was attended by pre-intern doctors from all universities and institutions countrywide that teach medicine was held on video conferencing platform, Zoom and in-person at Mulago National Referral Hospital on Sunday.
Dr. Lillian Nabwire, the FUMI President said that government does not seem to care about medical workers and they will not be party to such “mistreatment.”
“All they care about is to produce this lot of medical workers and then another, but our welfare has not been looked at,” Nabwire said
“I wrote a letter to the ministry, telling them that 115 interns had contracted Covid-19 during their line of duty but we got no response,” Nabwire added.
She said that if the issues that their senior colleagues have raised are not addressed now, no student will conduct their internship in government hospitals.
