Medical interns under their Federation of Uganda Medical Interns (FUMI) have vowed not to report to their different hospitals unless government addresses their demands.
Speaking to journalists on Monday in Kampala , the chairperson FUMI, Samuel Kigula, noted that they have on several occasions engaged the ministry of Health even when the High Court ruled that the salary of interns should be increased.
He said the ministry has continuously violated the the court order.
He urged the ministry to listen to the request of the medical interns and respect the court ruling.
He said the solution they have is to strike until their demands are fulfilled.
“If government does not agree with what we have tabled, we will not report to internship sites on 1 October and we will not work until our demands are met,”he said.
He said appointment letters should be clear on all the benefits given to them and working hours well stipulated.
“Uncleared salaries, the terms and conditions under which we are working in are not clear, so we have agreed that we are not going to pick those appointment letters before the issues we are demanding are clearly indicated in those appointment letters ,”he said.
He noted that to provide quality services to the patients the issues of pay should be well addressed since they also have problems like any other Ugandan.
“Interns have many problems,so everybody has a problem and the citizen want a better country and better services and we want to offer better services to our patients,”he said.
The president of Uganda Medical Association Dr. Ekwaro Obuku noted that every year the intern doctors strike three times unfortunately their grievances are not addressed.
He said these young doctors are the backbone of medical practice therefore they are entitled to better working conditions.
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