KAMPALA: President Museveni is engaging leaders of the Uganda Medical Association (UMA) in a bid to convince them to end their industrial action that has paralysed service delivery in public hospitals nationwide.
This was revealed by Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah during plenary on Tuesday, 23 November 2021.
This was after Nakawa MP, Joel Ssenyonyi rising on a matter of national importance, said the doctors’ strike, which started on Monday has caused a meltdown of health service delivery in the country.
“While you and other MPs will be going to Kololo, medical workers will be on day three of their strike. It is an emergency situation; hospitals are flooded because there are no medical workers to attend to them. Medical workers have gone on strike because they have been promised severally,” Ssenyonyi said.
But the Speaker ruled that there is an ongoing meeting between the President and the health workers’ leadership on the matter.
At least 1,850 health workers across the country have ignored calls to call off their industrial action, saying they are tired of endless promises of salary increment.
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.
Ministry of Health spokesperson Emmanuel Ainebyoona and the chairperson of the Health Committee of parliament Dr Charles Ayume on Sunday asked the medical doctors under the Uganda Medical Association (UMA) to be patient, saying their money for salary enhancement is contained in the supplementary requests approved by Parliament last week.
“Patience pays. The issues raised by UMA are being handled. A supplementary budget to implement the presidential directive is being processed after being passed by Parliament. They should follow their professional calling by putting patients first,” Ainebyoona said.
But the medical doctors said the money approved in the supplementary budget is for interns only.
“We don’t want signed papers, we don’t want promises, we don’t want meetings. This time all we want is money in our accounts or else we won’t come back to work,” Dr Herbert Luswata, the Secretary General of Uganda Medical Association, said during a press conference on Sunday, November 21, 2021.
The President of UMA, Dr. Samuel Odongo Oledo, said the health workers have over the past four years engaged relevant government ministries, departments and agencies to discuss matters affecting them. But the government has been making promises which have not been fulfilled.
On September 30, 2019, President Museveni directed the Public Service ministry to increase allowances and salaries of scientists, university lecturers and health workers.
According to the directive which was also accompanied by a parliamentary resolution, the allowances of health workers were supposed to be increased from 12 billion shillings to 35 billion shillings per financial year and this was meant to address all their grievances related to improving on their welfare and salaries.
Following the directive, Dr. Odongo notes that the Intern Doctors who are currently earning a gross monthly pay of 960,000 shillings, their salary was to be increased to 3 million shillings, an entry level Medical Officer to be paid a monthly salary of five million shillings, Senior Consultant 17 million shillings monthly and the rest of the cadres also their emoluments were supposed to be increased accordingly.
However, the doctors further say that although Museveni’s directive was implemented in universities and in some parastatal organizations, the health workers have been neglected to date.
Dr. Odongo said the matters affecting them relate to human capital development, delayed salary enhancement, poor working conditions characterized by chronic shortage of medical supplies and technologies such as Personal Protection Equipment, gloves among others.