Medical interns have given the Ministry of Health an ultimatum of 24 hours to release their deployment programme and dates when they are supposed to start training.
The ultimatum was announced by one of the medical interns Alex Luswata, during a press conference held at Galloway House, Mulago on Tuesday.
Mr Luswata said they have written letters to the Ministry of Health but it has failed to give them a straightforward programme to start their internship.
“Countrymen, on the 15th of May 2023 the cabinet directed the Minister of Finance to avail funds for our deployment. However since then nothing has been done as regards this matter. We are depressed and left to ask the following questions; What are we supposed to do in a moment when the Minister of Finance who was given the orders to release our finances has not been able to deliver?” he asked.
“How long must the sick wait to be attended to? Must the parents of this nation continue selling off their land and properties to take children to medical schools? Or this must stop! We took an oath and we will not abandon our oath to our patients because we are always willing to work on our patients and have reasons to continue doing so.”
According to Mr Luswata, they demand that the Ministry of Health communicates a day and dates of commencement of their medical internship and immediately releases the deployment list.
They also demanded that the Ministry of Finance submit a written commitment to avail funds for their internships to the Ministry of Health. They asked President Yoweri Museveni to intervene in their struggle to serve the situation that is becoming dire every hour.
“Ladies and Gentlemen we give an ultimatum of 24 hours from today to the Ministry of Health to respond to our demands and if the ministry fails to respond to our demands we as the leaders of the medical interns will go back and consult all the medical interns of this nation and together we will decide on what to do next,” he said.
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