Intern doctors under their umbrella group Federation for Uganda Medical Interns (FUMI) have asked government to provide them with medical equipment to protect them from contracting the deadly Coronavirus (COVID-19).
In a statement to the press, the chairperson of FUMI Dr Herbert Luswata said, "It’s unfortunate that we lack personal protective equipment in some internship centers like, Kabale Region Referral hospital (currently interns on sit down strike), Mbarara Regional Referral hospital (just concluded a one week sit down strike, and Mityana general hospital (just concluded a 5 days sit down strike)."
The lack of equipment, he said, was so serious that, "We do not have enough in more than 50% of the other internship sites."
He added, "As we see security guards to our leaders putting on face masks and not just face masks but the best N95, which are denied to the health workers, we hope these are not the COVID doctors who were talked about."
Dr Luswata noted, "In a hospital setting almost more than 50% of all our patients present with a fever, and yet we lack the test kits to be able to test and rule out Coronavirus, in these patients. Meaning they are all potential patients of COVID- 19, and the only thing that is left for us to be safe are the PPEs (at least face masks and gloves)."
He condemned the Ministry of Health directive that, "Recommended that health workers who are not working in COVID treatment centers should buy their own PPEs in what was termed as “non COVID doctors" /health workers."
The statement also touched on the difficulties the interns undergo to reach the medical facilities, "The current lockdown has greatly affected our work and service to the public, because more than 60% of interns are not accommodated at the internship sites, and rent far from the hospitals, where they can get cheap accommodation to rent."
As a result, "We have missed duties because we can't easily walk and reach the hospitals and this has greatly affected service provision to the patients."
He described President Yoweri Museveni's advice that medics use private cars as unrealistic because, "intern Doctors cannot afford to buy cars, because our salary is too small."
These transport challenges have resulted into, "Incidents like recently when over 15 interns were arrested for overloading in Kireka , because of being packed in a van with 10 other staff members making a total of 25 passengers, as they were going for work at Naguru Hospital."
They called upon the government and Ministry of Health to urgently provide them with protective gear so they can assist the country fight off the spread of Coronavirus.
In his last speech to the nation, President Museveni touched on the issue of inadequate medical equipment for frontline staff in the fight against Covid-19. He said that government was working to ensure that this equipment is purchased as a matter of urgency and distributed as and where it is needed.
Health minister Dr Ruth Jane Aceng commended medics for their patience and perseverance as they combat an unprecedented global pandemic. Uganda has registered 54 positive cases for Covid-19 with no deaths as of Monday, April 13, 2020.
