Pre-intern medical practitioners have filed an application at the High Court Civil Division in Kampala challenging the failure of the Ministry of Health to deploy them in medical facilities as part of their training.

They also challenge the proposal by the health ministry to have pre-interns who can pay for their placements to proceed and do so as the ministry awaits an allocation of funds from the government.    

According to the petitioners, the move is discriminatory since it favors those who have money against those who don’t have it.  

Last week, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Diana Atwiine, held a Zoom meeting with the pre-medical interns who have held a number of protests, calling for the end of their delayed deployment into hospitals and other health facilities as part of their training.    

During the meeting, Dr. Atwiine announced that the Ministry of Health had agreed that the pre-medical interns who can afford to sustain themselves proceed to the hospitals for placement as the ministry awaits the allocation of funds from the Government.  

Dr. Atwiine explained that they were forced to moot that proposal so as not to waste any more time since the pre-interns had remained underplayed for over one year. 

According to Dr. Atwiine, when the government finally releases money, the ministry will fund the pre-medical interns who would have spent their own money on internship placement     

Now, a group of pre-medical interns has filed an application against the Ministry of Health for failure to deploy them and what they called the discriminatory policy of offering internships to those who can afford them. 

A pre-intern doctor Judith Nalukwago explained that without doing an internship at a hospital, no intern can get a practicing license from the Ministry of Health. The internship is also a key requirement for a medic to pursue further studies at higher levels. 

She added that they were forced to petition the court to challenge the creeping discrimination and the violation of their rights to employment.

Ronald Ewalu, the lawyer representing the pre-medical interns says that they filed the application seeking leave of court for a representative order for his clients, thereafter; they will seek different orders on other parties, including the Ministry of Health to perform their roles as mandated. 

The pre-medical interns have held a series of demonstrations calling on the Ministry of Health to deploy them

Cathy