By Frank Kamuntu
The Ministry of Health faces a significant shortfall of UGX 18.813 billion, hindering the full deployment of medical interns across public health facilities. This shortfall prevents the interns from completing their mandatory training to become registered medical doctors, graduate nurses, pharmacists, and senior housing officers.
Anifa Kawooya, the State Minister for Health (General Duties), addressed Parliament on Tuesday, revealing that the Ministry could only deploy 1,500 medical interns, constrained by the available UGX 23.4 billion. Currently, there are 2,706 students eligible for deployment.
“With an expenditure of UGX 15.6 million per intern per annum, the current budget only allows for the deployment of 1,500 interns. Therefore, the Ministry can only deploy the cohort of 2023 and previous years, totaling 1,435 Medical Interns. The remaining 65 positions will prioritize Dental Surgeons (22) and Government-sponsored pharmacists (43) from the 2024 cohort due to their market demand,” Kawooya explained.
This statement followed a directive from Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa, who had received numerous complaints via social media from students excluded from the August 2024 deployment.
Kawooya clarified that although UGX 35.661 billion was appropriated for this financial year, UGX 11.590 billion was allocated to Senior Housing Officers, and UGX 670 million to the allowances of 86 continuing interns who joined late last year.
The Ministry faces challenges such as an inadequate budget, insufficient internship training sites, limited specialists to supervise interns, and a growing number of interns. Additionally, universities and the Ministry of Health lack a collaborative plan, leading to resource allocation mismatches.
“Internship training needs urgent prioritization with adequate funding based on university enrollments communicated to councils post-training,” Kawooya stated.
However, Parliament struggled with addressing the issue. During a mini-debate, legislators suggested deploying all remaining students immediately and proposed raising a supplementary budget for the Ministry of Health to secure the needed UGX 18.813 billion.
Timothy Batuwa, Shadow Minister for Health, emphasized ensuring that universities produce high-quality medics capable of excelling domestically and internationally after their mandatory internship. He responded to a concern raised by MP Charles Ayume about the disproportionately high number of interns from Kampala International University (KIU).
“There are 17 universities training medical workers, and KIU produces half of them. As a trained professional, I question how 500 students can be accommodated in a class for dentistry, nursing, and midwifery. We must investigate their resources to avoid producing underqualified personnel,” Ayume remarked.
Jessica Ababiku, Adjumani District Woman MP, also questioned the poor planning between the Ministry and universities, stressing the need to deploy all medical interns to ensure they complete their training.
Mawogola South MP, Goreth Namuga, suggested reconsidering the national budget, proposing cuts in other areas to cover the UGX 18.813 billion required for intern deployment. She referenced the substantial government investment in Roko Construction Company, suggesting reallocating funds to address urgent health sector needs.
“We recently allocated UGX 300 billion to Roko Construction Company. In comparison, UGX 18 billion is a small amount to ensure continuity in medical training. Additionally, the Ministry of Health had UGX 80 billion in arrears, leading to reduced allowances for medical interns from UGX 2.5 million to UGX 1 million, which remains unpaid,” Namuga highlighted.
While Minister Kawooya promised to present the issue to the Cabinet, Tayebwa insisted on consulting President Yoweri Museveni for further direction, assuring guidance by Wednesday.
Last week, police clashed with medical interns protesting the selection criteria for hospital deployment, questioning the fairness of the process. Tayebwa advocated for the non-deployed interns, calling for policy changes to allow private-sponsored students to proceed with internships without government allowances.
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