Magara Darious the Managing Editor of Eastafricanwatch.net caught up with Dr Luswata Alex in a brief Q and A interview about Medical interns in Uganda. Luswata is an executive member of the Interns Association in Uganda.
- Who is a medical intern in Uganda?
A medical intern according to the laws of Uganda is a graduate of a bachelor’s of; medicine and surgery, Dental Surgery, Pharmacy, Nursing, midwifery who is deployed in selected government hospitals and PNFPs for a mandatory and paid one-year appriestship by the Ministry of Health. Medical interns obtain a Practicing license after this. All medical graduates of Public or Private Universities enroll to become Medical interns and are both paid by the government.
2. Do the medical interns also treat patients?
Yes, do treat patients under supervision of established medical doctors, providing over 60% of care in government health facilities and are the first line health workers in the facilities they are deployed. They face challenges of a low pay, the big workload in government facilities, exposure to risky diseases inspite of having no health insurance during internship. The delays in deployment, poor accommodation and lack of adequate supervision at the different internship sites.
3. What more challenges do Medical interns face while on training?
Medical students suffer having to pay large sums of money for a long period of time to become medics, the heavy academic workload that spills into what must have been their holidays, the limited time for family and cocurricular activities and the emotional burden of a long hard course etc.
4. How could or can government help to reduce on the challenges. Can the interns go for Kyeyo abroad?
Government can lessen on the burden by fully or co-funding medical degrees, revising medical curriculum to remove the rather burdensome content that never applies to the Ugandan setting, providing easily serviced loans to those that find financial challenges in their medical school journey. Without Licensing that is only awarded after completing internship going for Kyeyo is hard. Health centres more so the Private not for profit are welcoming and may provide for accommodation, feeding and a small additional stipend. However, most government facilities which are the majority cannot keep to this and leaves most questions regarding interns’ welfare unattended to.
