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Doctors demand better allowances
Doctors want the government to increase salaries and duty allowances of health professionals, review the supply chain and management of medicines, vaccines and medical supplies, as well as disband the State House Medicine and Health Service Delivery Monitoring Unit.
Aceng said government had finalized the revised pay proposals for all public medical workers and other public servants as a way of mitigating the rampart strikes among public servants.
Aceng said the revised proposals are expected to be in place by end of this month but will be subject for further review to assess their sustainability.
She also noted that the specialized units of the Health service sector including the Cancer Institute and the Heart Institute are fully functional and appeals to the striking medics to resume work as their concerns are being addressed.
However, during a joint press conference at the Uganda Media Center the State Minister for Public service David Karubanga blamed what he called self seekers for the current doctor’s strike saying some of their leaders are not employed by government yet government can only negotiate with those it employs and specifically through the labor unions.
“This association was specifically created to champion professional aspirations and as government we only negotiate with trade unions and therefore we only know Uganda Medical Workers’ union (UMWU) and Uganda Nurses and Nurses and Midwives Union (UNMU),” said Karubanga.
The strike has affected all wards in different hospitals, with patients left to their own devices.
Medical unions and Uganda Medical Association clash
On Wednesday, leaders of the two unions addressed a joint press conference at the Uganda Nurses and Midwives’ Unions’ offices in Mulago where they appealed to medical workers to suspend the ongoing strike to allow negotiations to proceed uninterrupted.
The General Secretary of the Uganda Medical Workers’ Union Aggrey Sanya said it would be self defeating for health workers to maintain a strike at a time when government has accepted to remedy the situation and provided audience to dialogue on the matter.
However, the president of Uganda Medical Association Dr. Ekwaro Obuku maintained that medical officers will only get back to work when their concerns are addressed through an immediate supplementary budget for the health sector to urgently restock emergency – medicines in government facilities and increase their pay.
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The UMA can de-register Dr Achieng so that she does not practice anywhere on earth….. maybe illegal abortions in illegal clinics. What a betrayal to comrades. Is she serious medics get what they deserve?
That woman was not fit to be a minister of Health but was just catapaulted to serve certain interests because there is a lot of donor money to MOH. Even the PS had to be changed so that the equation balances.Now you see what has resulted? There is more than meets the eye.