Should we leave issues of doctors to doctors?

To think that your profession elevates you, and relegate mine on the account I don’t belong in your cohort, is forgetting each of us lays a brick on this country in different forms.

Argue against that?

So, don’t call out my basic knowledge for having an input in your ‘privileged profession.’

On account of equity, and decent treatment in all professions, let me jump to the corner of medical interns.

Institutions align internship on the arrangement-  students work for free while gaining training and experience.

Some parents can afford the facilitation for their children, while a good number can ill afford.

The medical internship standoff has awakened the debate on ‘student internships ‘free labour'.

Employers often argue that paying of internships incurs corresponding expenses.

But, if the work of an intern adds to the value chain, wouldn’t it be right to pay for it? Or reward with job placement at the climax?

A good number who added immense value to organisations still wear down their sole dropping CV's everywhere after internship.

Bits of ME

I would’ve been elated by an opportunity to intern at any of the top media houses whether I was going to get paid or not.

Getting an internship slot was like asking a shortsighted person to insert a thread through a tiny needle hole.

With fate on my side, miraculously my thread went through, wings spreading at the mighty New Vision newspaper.

I expected no coin, contentment was above commendation.

Transport or not, I would’ve suffered the burden of walking from Makerere University to First Street, Industrial area, for the association I had bagged with this media house.

My parents had to cater to the daily transport fare, lunch etc but at least for the facilitation to chase news stories, New Vision offered.

I expected no salary for close to two month training.

On my last day, Veteran Journalist John Kakande asked: “Did you get your payments for all your stories that got published since you started?”

My eyes widened and my smile deepened with exhilaration and like they say, the rest is history…Ulala.

I collected my stash, had gained the experience and even got an opportunity to stay on and contribute news stories for a while.

Internship is an emotional subject and a different story for all student trainees. But are the stories of intern doctors different from mine and yours?

Bits of YOU

Dr. Paul Kasenene of Wellness Care says medical interns are responsible for receiving all the patients who come in into the hospital for evaluating, preparing them, ensuring first set of treatment and presenting that information to the senior doctors.

“With all due respect, health care in Uganda cannot survive without interns…they do everything required for patient care and by the time a senior doctor comes, they've actually done most of the work,” he says

He recollects his to have been extremely busy, exhausting with no time to do anything else except think about the needs of his patients.

In other professions, Dr. Kasenene said, interns support an existing functioning system of employees from whom they get assistance and learn from but medical interns “are the first line of care”.

“They’re basically the driving engine of the health care establishment in Uganda...without them, the medical institution would seem like it's functioning well but there would be  massive inadequacies, inefficiencies, increased number of deaths etc…” he said.

Dr. John Ekure an Orthopedic Surgeon and founder Kumi Orthopedic Center interned at Mulago Hospital in 1996/97.

Only a month into it, there was a strike against poor pay and poor working conditions.

“I was suspended for six months, and spent them working in a missionary hospital, Kalongo. After the suspension, I was then posted to Mbarara University Teaching Hospital where I spent the next one year,” Ekure said.

The pay was Shs 90,000 per month but after the strike, the amount was increased to Shs 250,000.

Nonetheless, his batch had to focus on the training, amassing skills for the road but maintains internship was very stressful, labour intense, and a mental draining period of a doctor with no time for self.

“It was a 24-hour schedule, seven days a week with almost no leave,” he recalled.

Meanwhile the ring leader of the medical/intern doctors strike in 1995/96 was the current Minister for ICT and National Guidance Dr. Chris Baryomunsi according to the former president of the Uganda Medical Association, Dr. Ekwaro Obuku.

Dr Sabrina Kitaka, a renowned Pediatrician was an intern around the same period.

She said that year the interns did strike but not in the private hospitals.

Fast forward 2003-2004, former President of the Uganda Medical Association, Dr. Ekwaro Obuku's internship at Arua Regional referral Hospital makes you wonder whether this happened in Uganda.

“I flew there. I got a ticket from the hospital government money. It was my first time to enter a plane. I was picked from the airport by a Land Cruiser as if I were a UN Staff,” said Dr. Ekwaro.

“My meal was prepared for that day and I was given money...I was told you've no cook today but we'll be arranging for you a cook.”

All the expenses were paid for by the hospital, his allowance was about Shs 500, 000 in addition to Shs 10,000 per hospital night call.

This reminded me of my mother’s tales of extended home post pre-natal care that Ugandan government hospitals offered in the 1980s to mothers after giving birth.

“Doctors used to come home to check on us and bathe the baby for the first week,” she often narrates.

Sounds laughable right? But it did happen.

Over the years, the constant has been poor pay and poor working conditions.

The doctors and intern doctors play their part but how has our government reverted?

Intimidation! Cuban doctors! Sacking. Can’t we do better? A promise made must be kept for transformation starts with fulfilment.