Doctors divided over Museveni offer, State House health unit as second strike stares at failure
A section of doctors under the Uganda Medical Association has expressed comfort with President Yoweri Museveni’s salary offer, while the heads of the association insist that all aspects have to be met or else a fresh industrial action is called on Saturday.
Last month when the doctors called off their strike, government was tasked to meet the irreducible demands that included availing a Shs 41billion supplementary budget for drugs, welfare of interns and senior house officers and the disbanding of the state house founded Health Monitoring Unit.
Keep Reading
The looming 100 days’ strike was sparked off, by the fact their where rumors that government had blatantly violated these.
However, Nile Post has since learnt that a section of Senior House Officer (SHO)
State minister for health in charge of general duties, Ms Sarah Opendi revealed that the representatives of the Senior House Officers agreed that only those in government hospitals be given allowances, in the meantime a policy also be drafted to guide their operations.
“They demanded an SHO policy be drafted but this cannot be made in one day, it’s a task we intend to accomplish in the first quarter next year,” Opendi said.
Others demands where to have the Health Monitoring Unit disbanded. However, the Unit director, Dr Jackson Ojera Abusu vowed not to bow down to pressure from the Uganda Medical Association, that has often times called for the unit’s disbandment with claims of brutalising doctors.
“Disbanding the Health Monitoring Unit is not an answer, let the vices therein be addressed, “he said.
Dr Ojera also said that they are now in talks with the doctor’s body on how the two organs can work.
Ojera boasts that since inception, HMU has reduced drug stock outs from 50% in 2009 to 15%, several ghost health workers where scrapped off the pay roll as well as ghost ghost health facilities, to date about 600 drug theft cases have been registered.
