KAMPALA — For weeks, Uganda’s medical interns have watched with growing anxiety as a government policy threatening to end their allowances moved closer to implementation. Many feared the decision would force hundreds of young doctors, nurses, pharmacists and laboratory professionals into an impossible choice: work long hours in public hospitals without adequate support or abandon a crucial stage of their professional training.
Now, a public intervention by Health Minister Dr. Chris Baryomunsi has injected fresh hope into a debate that has become one of the most contentious issues in Uganda’s health sector.
Speaking during Capital FM’s The Capital Gang on June 13, Dr. Baryomunsi broke from a position previously associated with government policy and declared his support for the payment of all medical interns, including graduates from private universities.
“I missed this Cabinet debate while away, but as someone who did internship, private interns must be paid. The workload in our referral and district hospitals is heavy and full-time. I’m engaging the President to re-table this; we must find the money to fund all interns,” Dr. Baryomunsi said.
The remarks were significant not only because they came from the country’s health minister, but also because they suggested a possible reversal of a policy that had triggered widespread criticism from medical professionals, opposition leaders, religious leaders and civil society groups.
The controversy began after government announced reforms to medical internship training under a new health education policy. The changes were intended to integrate internship into formal university training and, according to government officials, expand opportunities for the growing number of health professionals graduating from both public and private universities. Critics, however, warned that the reforms would effectively eliminate the financial support many interns depend upon to survive during their mandatory one-year placement.
For decades, medical internship has served as the bridge between graduation and full professional practice. During the year-long placement, interns rotate through major disciplines while working in hospitals and health facilities across the country. Although technically trainees, they often form the backbone of service delivery, particularly in regional referral hospitals and understaffed facilities.
The debate quickly escalated beyond questions of education policy and became a broader conversation about the value of frontline healthcare workers.
Medical associations argued that interns are not passive students observing from the sidelines. They are graduate professionals entrusted with patient care responsibilities, often working overnight shifts and extended hours in facilities struggling with chronic staffing shortages.
The Uganda Medical Association (UMA), which has led a vigorous campaign under the hashtag #PayAllMedicalInterns, rejected suggestions that government could replace allowances with limited welfare provisions such as meals. Association leaders maintained that interns require support for accommodation, transport, food and other basic necessities if they are to continue providing safe and effective care.
Dr. Frank Asiimwe, the UMA president, has repeatedly argued that creating distinctions between government-sponsored and privately sponsored graduates ignores the reality of how hospitals function.
In many facilities, interns perform duties that keep wards operational, attend to emergencies and help manage patient loads that would otherwise overwhelm senior staff.
That argument has increasingly resonated beyond the medical community.
Last week, Church of Uganda Archbishop Stephen Kaziimba Mugalu joined the growing chorus of criticism, questioning the government’s priorities. He noted that medical interns shoulder much of the day-to-day work in public hospitals and argued that the relatively modest resources required to facilitate them should not be difficult to find.
Parliament, too, has become an arena for the debate.
During a recent plenary sitting, Leader of the Opposition Joel Ssenyonyi urged government to reconsider the policy, describing interns as indispensable to Uganda’s healthcare system. Vice President Jessica Alupo responded by indicating that government was willing to review the decision and promised further discussions on the matter.
The pressure appears to be having an effect.
Only days before his latest comments, Dr. Baryomunsi had indicated that Cabinet had directed the Ministry of Health to study the financial implications of supporting privately sponsored graduates while maintaining full facilitation for government-sponsored interns. That position was viewed by many doctors as insufficient because it still left thousands of private graduates uncertain about their future.
His latest remarks suggest a notable evolution in thinking within government.
Rather than defending a differentiated system, the minister now appears to be advocating for a solution that treats all interns equally, regardless of how they financed their university education.
The shift may also reflect the political and practical realities facing Uganda’s health sector.
Over the past decade, the number of medical training institutions has expanded significantly, producing larger cohorts of doctors, pharmacists, nurses and allied health professionals. While this growth has helped address long-term workforce shortages, it has also increased pressure on government budgets and internship placement systems. Officials have frequently cited these rising numbers as a reason for reviewing existing funding arrangements.
Yet health professionals insist that the solution cannot be achieved by transferring the burden onto interns themselves.
One participant during The Capital Gang discussion argued that the amount required to facilitate interns represents a relatively small expenditure within the context of the national budget.
“We are talking about less than Shs40 billion, not a trillion,” the contributor said. “Interns aren’t just training; they run the wards because consultants are completely overwhelmed.”
Another panellist argued that government should be discussing how to improve intern welfare rather than reducing it.
“The debate shouldn’t be about reducing intern facilitation, but increasing it,” the contributor said. “Interns carry a huge workload in hospitals, and under-supporting them risks weaker service delivery and avoidable loss of lives.”
For many young health professionals, the minister’s intervention represents the strongest indication yet that government may be prepared to revisit the issue.
Medical interns have experienced years of uncertainty, including delayed deployments, disputes over allowances and periodic industrial actions. The current controversy revived fears that another generation of health workers would face additional hardship at the very moment they are expected to assume critical responsibilities in the country’s hospitals.
Whether Dr. Baryomunsi’s engagement with President Yoweri Museveni ultimately results in a policy reversal remains uncertain.
What is clear is that the debate has moved beyond a discussion of allowances. It has become a test of how Uganda values the young professionals who form the foundation of its healthcare system.
For now, hundreds of interns awaiting clarity on their future have been given something that had appeared increasingly scarce in recent weeks: reason to hope.
“The Minister of Health Dr Chris Baryomunsi unequivocally declared his stance. So let it be written, so let it be done,” the Uganda Medical Association reacted.
Meanwhile, Museveni’s government have set aside over Shs560bn for salary increment for arts teachers and primary school teachers starting next month. (See Details Here).
