By Leonard Kamugisha Akida,
NATIONAL
The government has announced plans to recruit more than 1,000 health workers across various cadres to enhance service delivery in the health sector. This move aims to address the shortage of health workers and improve the overall quality of healthcare services.
Speaking to journalists at Uganda Media Centre on Tuesday, Prof. Pius Okong, the Chairperson of Health Service Commission said the recruitment drive which started a few months ago will cover various health cadres including nurses, doctors, enrolled nurses and midwives among other health professionals.
“We have planned to recruit 1,200 health workers of various categories for the institutions under our jurisdiction,” said Prof. Okong.
Accordingly, out of the over 1,000 health workers to be recruited, 500 are existing public service employees who will receive promotions. This means that 500 vacancies will be filled by promoting current health workers, while the remaining slots will be filled by new hires.
Prof. Okong added that the recruited employees will be posted in the 17 regional referral hospitals, national referral hospitals and at the ministry headquarters.
“Others will go to the Uganda Virus Research Institute and Entebbe Children hospital. Some hospitals will get 10 or 20 while others will get 50 workers depending on the need.”
Asked about the transparency of the recruitment exercise, Prof. Okong said the process is transparent and merit-based. He said they have been using online application (e-recruitment) which he says minimizes extortion and bribery.
In contrast, the Permanent Secretary and Accounting Officer to Health Service Commission, Mary Teopista Wenene revealed that the recruitment will include medical specialists, nurses, midwives, and medical officers. The specialists include consultants and senior consultants, gynaecologists, obstetrics, public health pediatrics and general surgeons, among others.
“We expect that within the next two months, these should have secured their letters of appointment and by September should be at their duty station to access government payroll,” said Wenene.
At least 70 medical specialists, 70 medical officers who are first degree medical officers and over 100 graduate nurses will join the public service and be considered for a government payroll in this recruitment exercise.
