A group of five students representing more than one thousand others have dragged the Attorney General and Ministry of Health to Court seeking an injunction to restrain the ministry from enforcing the new “Uganda Medical Internship Guidelines.”
The students also want an interim order directing the ministry to post them immediately for practical training in accordance with the old policy. Supervised practical training is mandatory before the medical interns can be registered, enrolled, certified and licensed as qualified health professionals.
The lawsuit was precipitated by the sudden reversal of the old internship policy and introduction of new internship Guidelines as announced by the Minister of Health Dr. Ruth Aceng while appearing before the Parliamentary Committee on Health to explain the unusual delay in posting these students to their respective places of attachment. The students were supposed to have reported for practical training in August.
The new Guidelines drastically reduce the number of medical doctors, dental surgeons, pharmacists and nurses who will be admitted for the internship programme; vary the terms and conditions of the original conditions of service for interns, including reducing their allowances; and introduce a pre-internship exam, among others.
For interns who studied on Government Scholarship at University, the new Guidelines impose on them an obligation to work in Government health facilities for two years immediately after their internship.
The main gravamen of the students regarding the new Guidelines is that they were not consulted or sensitized before the old policy was drastically reversed and a new policy unexpectedly communicated in its stead yet the new policy has the effect of varying the terms of the old service agreement to their detriment.
Led by Emma Amadriyo, the five litigants state that they urgently need the interim injunction to safeguard their right to be heard and maintain an unbroken supply of medical interns to service the health sector (which has been crippled by the delay to post medical interns to the various Government health facilities in the country) as the main suit challenging the new guidelines is still pending disposal before Justice Lydia Mugambe of the High Court.
His Worship Alex Ajiji, Registrar of the High Court (Civil Division), will hear the medical interns’ application next week on Thursday 29th September 2016 at 10:00a.m.
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