By Leonard Kamugisha Akida
NATIONAL
Government has harmonised the internship allowances for medical students, with all interns across the country.
According to the government, all medical doctors, both government or privately sponsored will receive Shs1 million per month until the end of their one year internship period.
The announcement was made by the State Minister for ICT in charge of National Guidance, Alioni Yorke Odri, during a press briefing at the Uganda Media Centre in Kampala on Tuesday.
Alioni said that the decision was reached on during a Cabinet meeting at State House Entebbe, on Monday.
This followed resistance to the implementation of the National Education and Training for Health Policy 2025 by the medical interns and other professional bodies for the medics.
Government-sponsored medical interns had been receiving Shs1.268m, taking home about Shs1m after taxes, while privately sponsored interns were receiving about Shs483,000.
“This caused resistance from the medical intern students,” Alioni said.
It should be recalled that the intern doctors in their ongoing strike were demanding for a shillings 2.5 million allowances, and review of the NETH policy in which the government was proposing mandatory one year internship before graduation. On August 12, 2026, police arrested eight intern doctors who were marching along Parliamentary Avenue in Kampala during protests over internship allowances and other unfair clauses in the proposed policy. They were charged with causing a common nuisance and granted bail on August 17.
However, Alioni, who is also the Aringa South County said cabinet also resolved that medical students who complete the five-year training programme and pass all their examinations will qualify for graduation without having to complete an internship first.
“Graduates would then have the choice to undertake their one-year internship in Uganda or another country,” Alioni said.
He said the decision was intended to address concerns arising from the policy, which was due to take effect in June 2026.
Meanwhile, several professional and government bodies have been given seven months to develop a conclusive framework for addressing the challenges surrounding medical internships.
The bodies include the Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners Council, Uganda Nurses and Midwives Council, Allied Health Professionals Council, Pharmaceutical Society of Uganda, Uganda Medical Association and Federation of Uganda Medical Interns.
Others are the Ministries of Health, Education and Sports, Finance and Public Service, the National Council for Higher Education and the 77 accredited universities and other institutions involved in training medical students.
The minister said the institutions are expected to submit recommendations on how the internship system should ultimately be managed.
Earlier this afternoon (Tuesday August 18, 2026), the minister of health, Dr Chris Baryomunsi told parliament that the cabinet had halted the contentious medical internship facilitation policy, which proposed separate payment rates for government-sponsored and privately sponsored medical interns.
Health Minister Dr. Chris Baryomunsi says the current cohort of medical interns will continue receiving UGX 1,268,929 per month, subject to tax, leaving approximately UGX 1 million net pay.
He emphasized the cabinet resolution that medical interns will graduate immediately after completing their studies, rather than waiting until after internship.
“Internship and graduation are two separate processes,” he said
Additionally, the minister directed that all eight medical interns who were recently arrested for demonstrating over internship allowances be released and deployed back to work. He said he will engage the Judiciary and the Attorney General over the possible dropping of charges against eight them.
