A ROTTEN SYSTEM FRUSTRATING YOUNG DOCTORS: Despite President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni’s directive that the emergency health workers who put their lives on the line to treat Covid19 patients be rewarded with employment by the Health Service Commission, concerned officials at the Dr Jane Ruth Aceng-led Ministry of Health (MoH) are yet to recruit these health workers.
These health workers have joined Dr Jimmy Spire Ssentongo’s Uganda Health Exhibition to voice their disappointment with Minister Aceng and her Permanent Secretary Dr Diana Atwine for defying a presidential directive, leaving them unemployed and hopeless yet they risked their lives at a time when many would have stayed away from the Covid19 frontline.
One of these health workers has shared how she is frustrated with the manner in which the Ministry of Health has declined to recruit them leaving them stranded since some had quit their jobs in private health facilities to lend government a hand in the fight against the deadly Covid19 pandemic that shook the world, killing thousands in Uganda.
Here is her testimony as shared with chief exhibitor Ssentongo in the ongoing Uganda Health Exhibition:
Please keep me anonymous. I want to raise my voice on behalf of health workers who sacrificed to serve during the COVID19 pandemic. We worked tirelessly to ensure that lives were saved, top country leaders including HE commended us for the job well done and they promised us jobs in the health public stream.
With hope of getting jobs to continue serving our country, we gave up our other jobs that we had before and enthusiastically served. We could even do double duties that is day and night. We got overwhelmed, fatigued and exhausted but at least we were willing to save lives. But how this system frustrates the young people willing to do the best for their country! I vividly recall, I was from an 8-8 duty and only to receive a letter on WhatsApp in the evening that we were to vacate the premises of work the following day.
NB… there was never no official communication. Anyway rumors had it that the letter circulating was indeed true and that’s how we lost it.
It should be remembered that in May 2022, Parliament summoned Minister Aceng to explain why she had defied Museveni’s order to absorb all health workers who had been hired to offer Covid19 emergency services. (See Details Here).
Meanwhile, there have been some really shocking revelations from the ongoing Uganda Health Exhibition, showing how much the health system is on its knees. For example, a fearless doctor has narrated how Museveni’s sister had sleep on the floor of Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital due to lack of beds. This member of the First Family was rushed in by soldiers after she got involved in an accident. (Read Full Shocking Story Here).
Also, a former intern doctor at Kiruddu Hospital revealed how many people died in one night at the health facility after senior doctors abandoned the hospital during a strike over salaries. This intern doctor was left with no option but to choose which patient should die and which one should live. (See Details Here).
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