Africa-Press – Uganda. Speaker of Parliament Ms Anita Among has directed the Prime Minister Ms Robbina Nabbanja to push the relevant government authorities to implement pledges made to settle the persistent demands of the intern doctors in the country.
In a specific directive issued to Ms Nabbanja minutes before a special sitting scheduled to pay tribute to the Lady Justice Stella Arach-Amoko on June 21, Ms Among asked the Prime Minister to fast track pledges government officials made during the budget reading on June 15.
“Prime Minister during the budget day [government promised to address cries of interns], kindly make a fall-up and ensure that the 1900 interns are deployed and are paid,” Ms Among said.
She added: “We will be very grateful to receive a report from you on the payment of the interns and deployment of those interns. After the 1900 are paid, there is an accumulation of 4000 interns yet to be deployed and to be paid. This would help us legislators to plan better on how much money should always be given so that they can be able to save lives.”
Considering that plenary sitting was committed to paying tribute to late Arach-Amoko, Ms Nabbanja did not however respond neither did other legislators in Parliament react on the same.
A section of medical interns led by the former President of the Uganda Medical Association (UMA) Dr Ekwaro Obuku delivered a petition to the speaker before she presided over the special sitting to honor the late Justice Amoko in parliament.
Ms Among assured the leadership of the intern doctors in the country that parliament would use its powers to ensure that the concerns and pains of the medical fraternity are ably settled.
In May President Museveni directed the Ministry of Finance not to scrap the payments of the medical interns.
Prior to this, medical interns had held repeated series of protests due to among other reasons, their delayed deployment as a requirement before completing their course to practice without supervision.
Since then, there have been recurrent pleas from the medical fraternity and other persons in the country demanding that the government heeds to the prayers of the interns.
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