The Uganda People’s Congress party (UPC) has appealed to the government to come up with an emergency fund to be able to absorb over 1,200 medical interns who have not been facilitated for internships, and also plan for those who are coming in after university.

This was revealed during the party’s weekly press release that took place on August 28, 2024, at the party headquarters in Uganda House, Kampala.

UPC spokesperson Sharon Arach Oyat noted that the government has in the past said that there is no funding for medical interns, a move that should be revised because the country lacks enough medical staff yet there are medical interns ready for deployment but are not being funded.

“One would ask that if the government can find billions for Enrica Pinette for both Lubowa Specialized Hospital and Coffee projects, find billions for Roko Construction, and allocate billions to musicians, how about the medical interns whose financial demand is little? Therefore, this is an issue where the government has prioritized unproductive areas,” she noted.

Arach added that UPC values Ugandans as the most important asset for the country, whose care in terms of health, shelter, food, education, and security must be assured.

“When the health sector is functioning well, it gives a country better opportunities to work on the socio-economic transformation of their respective societies. This makes our medical interns a very strategic resource to our health sector,” Arach added.

She also revealed that the implications of not funding the medical interns may cost the country a lot of money and loss of lives.

“If not well funded, medical interns will be forced to join cheap clinics and health centers where they will not attain proper medical training. This will lead to a high number of quack doctors in hospitals, which will cost the lives of so many Ugandans,” she revealed.

On August 24, 2024, President Yoweri Museveni revealed that the government lacks the funds to support medical internships and proposed that the financial burden be shifted to the sponsors who supported students during their education, a move that sparked a lot of criticism.