Leaders of the Uganda Medical Association (UMA) are seeking a meeting with health minister, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng over discrepancies in their salary structure.
Their letter dated May 10, 2023, comes hours after the Ministry of Public service revealed that government has never received any communique about an ongoing strike by Special Grade Medical Officers (MOSG) over salary enhancement.
Dr. Herbert Luswata, the UMA Secretary General says the impromptu meeting with the minister seeks to discuss possible ways through which parliament can approve a supplementary budget to cater for the correction of alarming salary discrepancies for the disgruntled health specialists.
Dr. Luswata says their concern is that currently, the difference in pay between a medical officer with a Bachelor in Medicine and a Bachelor of Surgery degree only and that of a specialist doctor with a Master’s degree plus additional subspecialist training is only 12.2%.
He adds that the difference in salary between the specialist and a consultant is a whopping 102% and yet the two categories of specialist doctors have similar minimum qualifications with the only difference being the number of years in service.
UMA argues that this discrepancy is extremely unfair, and demoralizing to specialists as it disregards their set of qualifications.
“As U.M.A we propose that the salary of a specialist (Associate Consultant) should be fair to match their set of qualifications and job descriptions and should be only one million less than the salary for a consultant not more; just as this consideration was made in salary allocationsfor the consultant and senior consultant categories, which we feel was reasonably and fairly applied according to the current public service salary structures,” the letter reads in part.
Medical Officers Special Grade officers went on strike this week after government failed to respond to their demands for salary increments.
