The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Uganda Medical Association (UMA) has expressed concern over the government’s obstruction of their efforts to facilitate the export of doctors to countries such as the United Kingdom, Poland, and the United States, despite the demand for their services.
In an interview with URN, UMA President Dr. Herbert Luswata revealed the frustration the association faces in trying to establish a labor externalization company for health workers, even as many of them remain idle. He says they have already held discussions with recipient countries about the possibility of having Ugandan doctors work there and are now renewing their push to have their company registered.
Luswata estimates that over two thousand medical officers are currently unemployed and this number is set to increase with over a thousand graduating annually. He says, in the New Year, they have top on agenda to renew their push to license their company, a move he says has been frustrated severally.
However, when contacted, Lawrence Egulu, the Commissioner in Charge of Employment Services in the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development, he said they have never received any application for a license to export medical doctors.
“To get a license, applicants are supposed to submit their documents through an online system and I can confirm that we have never received an application from the Uganda Medical Association”, he said adding that currently Uganda has no Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with any country regarding externalization of health workers.
While there were hints by the Ministry of Health last year suggesting that Uganda was considering a partnership which would see Ugandan doctors work in the United Kingdom, this has not yet been actualized and yet issues revolving around externalization of medical workers have been controversial considering the big need locally.
A plan by the country to externalize doctors to a Caribbean state of Trinidad and Tobago in 2015 caused uproar. Then, activists run to court to halt the move saying a country with deplorable doctor to patient ratio of 1:25,000 patients way below the recommended rates of 1:1000 by the World Health Organization couldn’t dare export their scientists.
But, Luswata says doctors should be allowed to go as even if they remain, the government is unable to offer them jobs.
Due to such hurdles they face with formerly externalizing medical workers, Luswata says they resorted to help doctors go individually. The doctor says late last year, they held several meetings to orientate doctors on job hunting in the UK.
In addition, information obtained by URN shows that some Ugandan doctors have already been sourced by the Royal College of Physicians which was interested in specialists. Efforts to obtain a comment from the Ministry of Health about this were futile as the responsible official asked for more time to obtain more information about the issue.
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