Uganda Medical Association (UMA) has urged medical interns who were deployed at different training centres across the country at the end of July not to report to work without clear terms of reference. The Ministry of Health released a deployment list of 2,290 pre-interns to report to different hospitals across the country in August, but Dr Frank Asiimwe the President of the Association said on Thursday that deploying them without clear guidelines on their allowances is an act of enslavement and described the move as shambolic.
“Any internship posting instructions that don’t mention how interns will find transport, food, housing are as shambolic as the ones released in the middle of the night of July 30th, 2026,” Dr Asiimwe said. “They are more draconian than the National Education Training for Health Policy which was sneaked to the public through excerpts in the media.”
Asiimwe speaks out after former Minister of Health Dr Jane Ruth Aceng told parliament on Tuesday that the government is ready to only offer allowances to those interns who have been on government sponsorship as medical students.
Dr Gavin Nyanzi, the Chairperson of Ethics and Professionalism within the association says the letter authored by Dr Charles Olaro, the Director General of Health Services which deployed them was plain and without the terms of reference as it’s usually done. In 2025, he says, it was clear how much in allowances that interns were to get.
However, this year’s internship begins amid controversy over the proposed National Education and Training for Health Policy, which seeks to reform health professional training in Uganda. The Ministry of Health says the policy is intended to improve the quality of health education and strengthen the transition from classroom learning to professional practice.
Among its proposals are the introduction of a pre-internship examination and a requirement for medical and other health trainees to complete their mandatory internship before graduation. The proposed reforms also recommend scrapping internship allowances, an issue that has repeatedly triggered disputes and industrial action between health workers and the government.
Nyanzi says the deployment letter should have spelt out exactly how they are move and that as it is currently there is no point in reporting to the internship sites when they don’t know their terms of reference. He says they need commitment from government on their allowances-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
