Speaking during his recent meeting at State House Entebbe, President Yoweri Museveni said the Uganda government is incapacitated to provide funds for the sponsorship of medical internship, a statement that has drawn debate amongst Ugandan medical professionals as well as those in the general public. Addressing 210 post-medical interns who have been at NALI in Kyankwanzi for 10 days for patriotism and ideological training, Museveni said the support to the internship programmes should be tasked to the same sponsors who assisted the medical students while at the school.
Museveni was concerned about over-reliance on the government to foot the cost, saying the government already has a lot of obligations— “Who pays for the internship? Some people are saying that the government must pay, but I think that is risky because the government would pay if it had money, but it doesn’t have enough money since it has a lot of things to do like roads, security, etc.,” he said.
It is interesting—and disturbing—that intern doctors have recently begun voicing their complaints against the government’s failure to provide them with the necessary funds for their internship postings into hospitals. The government claims to have budget constraints. The Commissioner for Health Services in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Henry Mwebesa, admitted: “The Ministry is grossly underfunded hence fails to deploy and effectively supervise, the interns.”. The Uganda Medical Internship Committee has prepared placements for the period August 2024 to July 2025, although the process remains uncertain due to the prevailing financial challenges.
Museveni proposed that medical graduates should remain as interns, though they should be sponsored by those who had in the past engaged them to help ease the strain on government resources. “Why don’t we agree that a person who has qualified as a medical doctor after five years in medical school continues with the internship but with sponsorship from the person who sponsored him in the first place?” he proposed.
Moreover, Museveni sounded a warning that the quality of medical training must be maintained by increasing the number of hired consultants to supervise interns. He also appealed to medical professionals to support an increase in the health budget, saying more positions in health centers would be created and more doctors would be absorbed into the public system.
Alternatively, he engaged the medic graduates to work in the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) or even the police. He added that their services were very welcome since their skills were very crucial in both the UPDF and police; “Joining UPDF and police as medical professionals is music to my ears. You are still young and energetic. I can guarantee you, you are most welcome in the army and police any time. Even now, I can recruit you here.
Museveni’s statement has sparked debate regarding the future of medical education in Uganda, at a time when all stakeholders are still struggling to address concerns of funding and resource allocation in the health sector.
