TOUGH TIMES: Museveni Government Cuts Intern Doctors’ Allowances as Internship Start Date is Revealed (See Details)

President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni’s government has cut allowances for medical interns, the Ministry of Health has announced.

The deployment of interns, who have completed their degrees at medical schools across the country, has been delayed for months.

The delay was due to lack of funds to facilitate the medical interns, the Ministry of Health has previously noted.

In April 2023, Health Minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng told Parliament that while the number of interns has increased to 1,901, the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development cut the budgetary allocation for a number of functions, including the deployment of interns.

Appearing before the Health Committee of Parliament, Minister Aceng noted that there are no funds for the payment of allowances of medical interns and senior house officers in the 2023-2024 Financial Year.

This, she further explained, was due to the reduction of budget for the Ministry of Health by over Shs75.417bn.

“Let me also alert members that all the subversions under the health sector were cut including money for interns, so in 2023/2024, we don’t have money for medical interns and senior house officers. There is no subversions to the health service bodies and research,” said Aceng.

There have been a number of demonstrations over the delayed deployment of interns in recent months.

Now, Dr Henry Mwebesa, the Director General of Health Services at the Health Ministry, has announced that a date and terms for the deployment have been agreed on.The directors of the 58 and other health facilities which will host the interns have been ordered to issue deployment letters and offer induction to the health workers.

But there is a new twist to the deployment of interns after the monthly allowance for each one of them was cut from Shs1.5m to Shs1m.

In fact, President Museveni has previously directed that each medical intern be paid Shs2m. But this directive is yet to be implemented.

“All medical interns are expected to report to their various training centers by 3 August 2023. Gov’t will deploy the 1,901 medical interns within the available budget at a net monthly allowance of UGX 1,000,000 per intern to facilitate accomodation and feeding,” the Health Ministry announced.

It should be remembered that in one of the heated meetings over the issue of delayed deployment, angry interns hurled insults at Museveni’s personal doctor and Permanent Secretary Dr Diana Atwine. (See Details Here).

You can see the current salary structure, showing how much each government employee category earns, as well the list of 25 most highly paid government employees and how much they earn Here, There and Over There.

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