Speaker of Parliament Ms. Anita Among has directed Prime Minister Robbina Nabbanja to push the relevant government authorities to fast-track and implement its pledge made to settle the persistent cries of the intern doctors in the country.
In a very specific directive issued to Ms Nabbanja minutes before a special sitting that was scheduled to pay tribute to the Lady Justice Stella Arach-Amoko, Ms Among asked the Prime Minister to fast-track government pledges made during the budget process.
“Prime Minister during the budget day [government promised to address cries of interns], kindly make a fall-up and ensure that the 1900 interns are deployed and are paid,” Ms Among said.
“We will be very grateful to receive a report from you on the payment of the interns and deployment of those interns. After the 1900 are paid, there is an accumulation of 4000 interns yet to be deployed and to be paid. This would help us legislature to plan better on how much money should always be given to help so that they can be able to save lives,” she added.
Considering that plenary sitting was committed to paying tribute to the late Arach-Amoko, Ms Nabbanja did not however respond neither did other legislators in Parliament react on the same.
Prior to this, Ms. Among assured leadership of the intern doctors in the country that Parliament will use its powers to ensure that the concerns and pains of the medical fraternity are ably settled.
Her remarks were made on Wednesday shortly after she received a petition from a section of medical interns led by the former President of the Uganda Medical Association (UMA), Dr Ekwaro Obuku.