{"id":28876,"date":"2022-03-31T17:03:24","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T17:03:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/govt-terminates-contracts-of-1000-covid-health-workers"},"modified":"2022-03-31T17:22:48","modified_gmt":"2022-03-31T17:22:48","slug":"govt-terminates-contracts-of-1000-covid-health-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/govt-terminates-contracts-of-1000-covid-health-workers","title":{"rendered":"Govt terminates contracts of 1,000 Covid health workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. <\/strong><\/span>A disagreement has erupted between Ministry of Health and Uganda Medical Association (UMA) following the former\u2019s move to terminate the contract of health workers who were running Covid-19 treatment units in public facilities.<\/p>\n

The March 18 termination letter signed by the Permanent Secretary, Dr Diana Atwine, comes amid failure by the ministry to give the health workers their payment for over four months.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ<\/b><\/p>\n

: Govt to pay medics using mobile money<\/p>\n

In the letter, which was addressed to all hospital directors, Dr Atwine said they made the decision to terminate contracts of the workers because of the reduction in Covid-19 infections which has led to few patients in hospitals for the health workers to manage, coupled with budgetary constraints.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been decided to scale down the number of health workers under emergency response to Covid-19. In view of the above, all local non-gratuitable contracts health workers recruited under the emergency response to Covid-19 and deployed in Covid-19 treatment centres have been terminated with effect from March 30,\u201d the letter reads in part.<\/p>\n

Accordingly, the ministry asked the hospital directors to mainstream the management of Covid-19 into the existing structure to ensure continuity of Covid-19 service delivery in hospitals and ensure proper handover of any government property that may be in the possession of the affected staff.<\/p>\n

Dr Daniel Kyabayinze, the director of public health at the ministry, said they currently have only two patients admitted to the hospital.<\/p>\n

This is a significant reduction compared to the second wave last year when Covid-19 patients overwhelmed hospitals and some died outside the wards because the units were full.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ:<\/b><\/p>\n

UMA questions govt plan to export medical workers<\/p>\n

More than 1,000 health workers –200 doctors, 600 nurses and other health cadres have been affected by the termination, according to UMA president, Dr Samuel Oledo.<\/p>\n

But the UMA secretary general, Dr Herbert Luswata, and the ministry spokesperson, Mr Emmanuel Ainebyoona, put the number at 350. Mr Ainebyoona said some health workers were being funded by development partners.<\/p>\n

Staffing gap<\/p>\n

Addressing journalists in Kampala yesterday, Dr Oledo said the termination will create a serious service gap in the hospitals and affect general service delivery because hospitals across the country are already grappling with intolerably limited health workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have 40 percent staff gap in hospitals. Even while working in Covid-19 treatment unit, some were being deployed to assist in other wards in the hospital,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ:<\/b><\/p>\n

Health workers at risk as hospitals run out of PPEs<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cBut now you are telling us that even the few who are employed on contract basis \u2013doctors, pharmacists, anaesthesiologists, nurses since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2019, trying to address the issue of the disease and to make sure we have a minimum number of deaths, are being thrown out when they were giving care!\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Oledo asked the ministry to reverse the move and pay the arrears immediately, warning that they would consider another industrial action.<\/p>\n

One of the affected medics, Ms Maria Nantayi, a nursing officer, who has been taking care of Covid-19 patients at Mulago hospital treatment centre for two years, said she feels the ministry used and dumped them.<\/p>\n

\u201cNationwide, as nurses, we have our own challenges. In the past five months, people have not been paid their salaries, National Social Security Fund was last paid in November and some people didn\u2019t get their contracts from the Ministry of Health,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are appealing to the PS to pay us our salaries. If it doesn\u2019t come out this week, another action shall be taken ,\u201d Ms Nantayi said.<\/p>\n

She added that the government had in late 2021 validated them and promised to absorb the contracted workers, a claim the ministry didn\u2019t deny.<\/p>\n

Ministry\u2019s take<\/b><\/p>\n

Mr Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the Health spokesperson, told this newspaper the government will pay the arrears of the medical workers within a few days and also select those with desired qualities to continue working in hospitals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe decided to terminate the contracts because we never had resources to cater for their payments and allowances. Since there are no cases that require admission, we said we shall have to have them be off until when there is a threat and there are resources,\u201d Mr Ainebyoona said.<\/p>\n

READ:<\/b><\/p>\n

Mulago boss suspended, ordered not to leave Uganda without Atwine\u2019s permission<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t mention the amount of money the government was spending on the health workers.<\/p>\n

Mr Ainebyoona added: \u201cWe are also analysing various qualifications to see those ones who can be absorbed within the available slots that have the wage.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Africa-Press – Uganda. A disagreement has erupted between Ministry of Health and Uganda Medical Association (UMA) following the former\u2019s move to terminate the contract of health workers who were running Covid-19 treatment units in public facilities. The March 18 termination letter signed by the Permanent Secretary, Dr Diana Atwine, comes amid failure by the ministry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":28875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,7,8],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-28876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nGovt terminates contracts of 1,000 Covid health workers - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A disagreement has erupted between Ministry of Health and Uganda Medical Association (UMA) following the former\u2019s move t ...\" \/>\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\/govt-terminates-contracts-of-1000-covid-health-workers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Govt terminates contracts of 1,000 Covid health workers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A disagreement has erupted between Ministry of Health and Uganda Medical Association (UMA) following the former\u2019s move t ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/govt-terminates-contracts-of-1000-covid-health-workers\" \/>\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=\"2022-03-31T17:03:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-31T17:22:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2022\/03\/img-6245e3251bcc5.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"688\" \/>\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=\"4 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\/govt-terminates-contracts-of-1000-covid-health-workers#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/govt-terminates-contracts-of-1000-covid-health-workers\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Govt terminates contracts of 1,000 Covid health workers\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-31T17:03:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-31T17:22:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/govt-terminates-contracts-of-1000-covid-health-workers\"},\"wordCount\":781,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/govt-terminates-contracts-of-1000-covid-health-workers#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2022\/03\/img-6245e3251bcc5.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"head lines\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/govt-terminates-contracts-of-1000-covid-health-workers#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/govt-terminates-contracts-of-1000-covid-health-workers\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/govt-terminates-contracts-of-1000-covid-health-workers\",\"name\":\"Govt terminates contracts of 1,000 Covid health workers - 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