{"id":21650,"date":"2021-11-23T15:39:52","date_gmt":"2021-11-23T15:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?p=21650"},"modified":"2021-11-23T15:14:24","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T15:14:24","slug":"patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike","title":{"rendered":"Patients stranded as doctors strike"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. <\/strong><\/span>Doctors countrywide yesterday went on strike protesting government\u2019s failure to meet their demands that include pay rise.<\/p>\n

The strike, which kicked off on Monday, follows the expiry of a 90-day ultimatum the Uganda Medical Association (UMA) had issued to government to implement President Museveni\u2019s promise or they lay down their tools.<\/p>\n

The medics also want government to improve the infrastructure in public health facilities such as intensive care units, ensure uninterrupted supply of medicines and personal protective equipment as well as avail more ambulances for Covid-19 case management, among others.<\/p>\n

During our visits to the various health facilities, some patients were left unattended to. The UMA confirmed to Daily Monitor in an interview yesterday that only those doctors handling emergencies reported for work yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHealth services are paralysed. We are only covering emergency services and if you are doing that, it doesn\u2019t mean that the whole hospital is functional,\u201d Dr Herbert Luswata, the UMA general secretary, said in an interview.<\/p>\n

At Tororo District hospital, Ms Idah Joan Abbo, a patient attendant, said no doctor had visited their ward.<\/p>\n

Mr Walter Uryekwun, the Tororo District hospital senior administrator, said: \u201cThese [doctors] are grown-up people. Much as most of them turned up on duty, they are not working and I can\u2019t force them. However, we have engaged them to be available to handle emergency cases, to which they have accepted.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Mulago hospital, some patients were being served while others had not received medical care by around 11 am. Nurses and midwives, however, did not go on strike.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last time [doctors] saw patients was last week on Friday. I have also just seen those who are very sick and I am leaving. The impact will be more felt as days go by. Many medical workers who are around are interns,\u201d Dr Shamim Namugerwa, a Master\u2019s student training at Mulago, said.<\/p>\n

However, Dr Rosemary Byanyima, the deputy director of Mulago hospital, said despite the conflicting accounts portrayed in the media, everything was moving on smoothly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have already made ward rounds; patients have been attended to,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

One of the senior doctors at Mulago hospital, who preferred anonymity, said: \u201cWe are on strike but also watching the space.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salary scale<\/p>\n

UMA accuses government of failure to implement an earlier agreement with President Museveni to have the salary for entry doctors increased to Shs5 million, senior medical consultants (Shs17m), and intern doctors (Shs2.5m).<\/p>\n

Intern doctors currently earn Shs750, 000, entry-level doctors (Shs3m) and consultants (Shs7.3m).<\/p>\n

Mr Cherop Justus Kiplangat, the president of Uganda Nurses and Midwives Union (UNMU), yesterday appealed to the medical workers to refrain from participating in the strike.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs UNMU, we shall engage with the government like we have always done, and we shall inform our members of the outcomes of such engagements. The decision shall be taken and the next course of action will be communicated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

At Mbarara and Lira regional referral hospitals, officials said doctors were attending to the patients.<\/p>\n

Dr Johnson Kabwishwa, a medical superintendent at Kitagata Hospital in Sheema District, said: \u201cFor us, we are in the village and strikes normally are in towns, so our operations went on normally and we continued serving our people\u201d.<\/p>\n

Dr Alex Oula, the Medical Superintendent of Apac hospital, and Dr Margret Nanono, the deputy district health officer of Mpigi, said there was no strike.<\/p>\n

UMA, however, insists that the strike will continue until their grievances are resolved.<\/p>\n

Compiled by Joseph Omollo, Felix Ainebyoona, Bill Oketch, Beatrice Nakibuuka, Tonny Abet, Brianadams Kesiime.<\/b><\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Uganda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. Doctors countrywide yesterday went on strike protesting government\u2019s failure to meet their demands that include pay rise. The strike, which kicked off on Monday, follows the expiry of a 90-day ultimatum the Uganda Medical Association (UMA) had issued to government to implement President Museveni\u2019s promise or they lay down their tools. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":21649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,12],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-21650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nPatients stranded as doctors strike - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Doctors countrywide yesterday went on strike protesting government\u2019s failure to meet their demands that include pay rise ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Patients stranded as doctors strike\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Doctors countrywide yesterday went on strike protesting government\u2019s failure to meet their demands that include pay rise ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-23T15:39:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/11\/img-619d05104adf5.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Patients stranded as doctors strike\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-23T15:39:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike\"},\"wordCount\":609,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/11\/img-619d05104adf5.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike\",\"name\":\"Patients stranded as doctors strike - Uganda\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/11\/img-619d05104adf5.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-23T15:39:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Doctors countrywide yesterday went on strike protesting government\u2019s failure to meet their demands that include pay rise ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/11\/img-619d05104adf5.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/11\/img-619d05104adf5.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"Patients stranded as doctors strike\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Patients stranded as doctors strike\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/\",\"name\":\"Uganda\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Patients stranded as doctors strike - Uganda","description":"Doctors countrywide yesterday went on strike protesting government\u2019s failure to meet their demands that include pay rise ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Patients stranded as doctors strike","og_description":"Doctors countrywide yesterday went on strike protesting government\u2019s failure to meet their demands that include pay rise ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike","og_site_name":"Uganda","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2021-11-23T15:39:52+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":800,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/11\/img-619d05104adf5.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Patients stranded as doctors strike","datePublished":"2021-11-23T15:39:52+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike"},"wordCount":609,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/11\/img-619d05104adf5.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Uganda","uganda"],"articleSection":["all news","homepage-english","policy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike","name":"Patients stranded as doctors strike - Uganda","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/11\/img-619d05104adf5.jpg","datePublished":"2021-11-23T15:39:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Doctors countrywide yesterday went on strike protesting government\u2019s failure to meet their demands that include pay rise ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/11\/img-619d05104adf5.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/11\/img-619d05104adf5.jpg","width":1200,"height":800,"caption":"Patients stranded as doctors strike"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/patients-stranded-as-doctors-strike#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Patients stranded as doctors strike"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/","name":"Uganda","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}