Uganda Medical Association calls for better supervision of intern doctors

The Uganda Medical Association has blamed last week's Jinja Hospital incident, in which a premature baby lost its arm in a caesarian section operation, on lack of supervision for intern doctors in government hospitals.

Addressing the media over the weekend, the newly elected chairperson of the Uganda Medical Association Dr. Richard Idro said following an investigation, the baby's arm could have been saved if there was a senior doctor for the intern to consult.

"We found that the unfortunate incident was most likely a result of very difficult operation which was done under extreme pressure to save the mother. It was occasioned by the doctor pulling off the arm of a premature baby in a bid to deliver this baby,"he said.

He noted that it is possible that the outcome could have been better if the procedure was supervised by a more senior doctor but the circumstances at that time required that it was done only by the intern.

He said annually, the ministry of Health receives a number of graduate doctors for internship without much financial and human resource investment.

"There is no coordination between the ministry of Education which oversees the training, the training institutions, that is the medical schools, the National Council for Higher Education which accredits these medical schools,"he said.

Dr. Frank Asiimwe, the chairperson Welfare, Uganda Medical Association (UMA) proposed that all the same exams done by the these medical schools should be the same to avoid favoritism.

“We think and we are proposing that the final exams in the fifth year should be the same like we have UNEB , all medical schools are about 8 in number .they should do one exams because as we have had some universities may want their students to pass and so they might get their students actually to pass,"he said.