41 medical interns attached to Kawempe referral hospital have gone on strike over delayed payment of their allowances.

The interns say they last received payment on December 22, 2019. They are entitled to a monthly payment amounting to Shs 750,000 each as their upkeep during their training. They went on strike when the hospital had over 400 mothers in the post-natal ward.

Dr Herbert Luswata the head of the Medical Interns in Uganda, currently attached to Kawempe hospital says his colleagues are struggling to find food and rent.

The strike started Monday at 5:00 pm on Thursday crippling services at the hospital.

“We had a meeting with the administration, informing them, about the withdrawal of service starting Monday at 5:00 pm if the money does not hit the individual accounts. The administration signed and approved our pay that Monday morning and informed us that the money would reach accounts by 5:00 pm on Monday. However, money was not received,” says another medical intern at Kawempe hospital who requested not to be named.

The hospital has been operating with 22 intern doctors, 12 intern nurses and seven (7) intern pharmacists who are expected to work for 24 hours a day.

The most affected areas of the hospital are the labour ward, theater, gynecology emergency section and the post-natal ward. On average, Kawempe hospital has between 70 and 100 women admitted in labour and there are four operations per day due to ectopic pregnancies at the gynecology emergency section. The hospital also registers approximately 20 admissions per day due to incomplete abortions and other forms of abortions.

This is in addition to a daily average of 25 babies born by cesarean section. Meanwhile, between 30 and  40 women deliver normally on average.

Betty Arum, the hospital accountant acknowledges the delays in payments of the allowances to the medical interns citing that the money had bounced on their accounts due to errors.u.r.n