The Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) has tasked the government to expeditiously address the concerns of health workers before the situation escalates to cause unnecessary deaths.
In a strongly-worded statement by the party’s National Coordinator, Ms Alice Alaso, the opposition party has condemned the “sluggishness of government and ping pong,” in dealing with the concerns of the medical fraternity.
This follows a declaration by striking doctors threatening to withdraw all emergency services they have been offering even while on industrial action. Senior house officers (SHOs), started their sit down strike on May 1 protesting delayed payment of their allowances.
They are striking because they have not been paid their allowances for four to six months and yet the government is planning to stop giving them allowances in the next financial year. The SHOs, based on the year 2021 directive by President Museveni, are supposed to be paid Shs2.5m every month to sustain them.
Their industrial action started amid protests by pre-intern (qualified medical workers), who should undergo internship to get practicing licenses from their respective professional bodies.
“The call for salary enhancement is not new; it should have been done earlier than this financial year. This applies to the matter of deployment of intern doctors which should never have been a matter of negotiations, cajoling, and intimidation in the first place. You do not have to wait until the counting of people who die without medical attention begins,” Ms Alaso said.
The party is concerned that vulnerable sections of the public like children, expectant mothers, the frail, elderly, the poor and all those that need emergency care will be disproportionately affected.
“The government is called upon to immediately avert potential disaster…this alone will stop the possibility of uncountable deaths arising from an intended strike,” they say.
The ministry of health has previously appealed to the officers to resume work, saying they are engaging the Ministry of Finance to address their grievances.
