The Pharmacy Professionals Association of Uganda (PPAU) has rejected claims that Uganda is producing more health professionals than it can absorb, arguing that the country instead faces a severe shortage of healthcare jobs.
In a statement issued through the association's X account on Tuesday, PPAU said current discussions surrounding the cost of medical internships and government support for intern allowances have obscured what it described as the country's real challenge: a massive shortage of health workers across the healthcare system.
According to the association, government staffing data shows that Uganda's health sector has an approved establishment of more than 154,000 positions, but only about 48,000 of those posts are currently filled, leaving over 106,000 vacancies nationwide.
“In practical terms, nearly seven out of every ten approved health positions remain vacant,” the statement said.
PPAU noted that staffing gaps exist across all levels of healthcare delivery, including Health Centre IIIs, Health Centre IVs, district hospitals, regional referral hospitals and specialised institutions, many of which continue to operate with less than half of the personnel required to provide optimal services.
The association said the consequences of these shortages are visible across the country through long patient waiting times, healthcare worker burnout, limited access to qualified professionals in rural communities and delays in the delivery of essential health services.
At the same time, Uganda continues to train doctors, pharmacists, nurses, dentists, laboratory professionals and other healthcare workers who must complete internship training before entering independent practice.
According to PPAU, the contradiction lies in the fact that while health facilities remain critically understaffed and thousands of approved positions remain vacant, public debate has increasingly focused on the cost of supporting interns.
The association said government currently spends approximately Shs35.7 billion annually on medical interns and Senior House Officers and estimated that funding all eligible interns and trainees would cost roughly Shs54 billion per year.
While acknowledging that these figures may appear substantial, PPAU argued that they represent less than one-tenth of one percent of Uganda's national budget of more than Shs84 trillion.
The association further emphasised that interns are not merely beneficiaries of government support but are actively involved in healthcare delivery.
“Across Uganda's hospitals, interns work long shifts, manage emergencies, support surgical teams, monitor critically ill patients, assist in maternity wards, dispense medications and provide essential clinical services,” the statement said.
It added that in many facilities, particularly outside major urban centres, interns form a critical component of the healthcare workforce and that patient care would be significantly disrupted without their contribution.
PPAU argued that Uganda's challenge is not an oversupply of health professionals but rather the country's inability to create sufficient wage capacity to absorb the professionals it continues to train.
“A nation with an excess of health workers would have hospitals fully staffed and graduates unable to find work because demand had been met. Uganda's situation is the opposite,” the association said.
“Health facilities remain understaffed, patients remain underserved, and thousands of positions remain vacant.”
The association maintained that the shortage facing Uganda is not one of personnel but of investment, noting that every doctor, pharmacist, nurse and specialist who completes training represents years of investment by families, universities and government institutions.
According to PPAU, allowing trained professionals to remain unemployed while health facilities struggle with chronic staffing shortages represents a missed opportunity for both healthcare delivery and economic development.
The association called for increased financing for the health workforce, expanded recruitment and the preservation of internship as a viable bridge between education and professional practice.
“A healthy population is the foundation of national development. Roads, industries and technology all depend on a workforce that is healthy enough to learn, work and innovate,” the statement said.
“For that reason, health workforce spending should not be viewed as consumption. It should be viewed as investment.”
PPAU concluded that Uganda does not have too many interns but rather too few health workers for the population it serves, too many vacant positions in health facilities and too many communities still waiting for access to quality healthcare.
“The real question is not whether the country can afford to support and employ its health professionals. The real question is whether the country can afford not to,” the statement said.
The statement comes amid growing debate following government confirmation that medical intern allowances will be scrapped as part of efforts to accommodate the increasing number of graduates from health training institutions.
Speaking to journalists at Parliament on Monday, Health Minister-designate Dr Chris Baryomunsi said the decision was driven by the rapid expansion of universities offering health-related programmes and the resulting increase in the number of graduates requiring internship placement.
“In the past, the government was paying medical interns, but this was when we had few universities in the country, such as Makerere. Today, however, Uganda has many universities, both public and private, producing doctors, nurses and other health workers,” Baryomunsi said.
“A decision was taken to remove the allowance and enable all doctors, pharmacists and nurses who complete their studies from both public and private universities to undertake internships without discrimination occasioned by a lack of resources. That decision, of course, has its pros and cons, but we shall implement it and study it along the way to see how it works.”
Baryomunsi said the intention behind the policy shift is to ensure that all graduates who qualify for internship can proceed with their training regardless of government funding constraints.
“It is intended that all students who qualify and complete their degrees proceed to internship and are not constrained by a lack of funding to pay their allowances,” he said.
