Medical interns take protest to parliament

Medical interns Wednesday tried to take their protest about working conditions and study duration to Uganda’s parliament.

The students who include medical doctors, pharmacists and nurses protested a government proposal to extend from one to three years the period they act as interns. They are also unhappy with the reduction in their allowances.

Police stopped them from reaching parliament where they wanted to see the Speaker.

The interns are deployed in government medical facilities across the country as a precondition for confirmation as medical doctors, nurses and pharmacists.  The deployment enables them to achieve hands-on clinical experience but they say they find it increasingly hard to work without adequate facilitation.

The intern doctors are entitled to a monthly payment of sh600,000, a rate which was fixed last year after a reduction from the initial sh800,000.

“Minister  Ruth Achieng should resign. She has failed already.Our allowances were reduced last year and now they want to add more years of working like slaves,” one intern, who marched from Mulago said.

“We are living in poor conditions, we stay in slums because that is where we can afford to rent and now we are being thrown out of the houses because we have delayed to pay for rent.”