Anna, MD

That Ministry of Health suggestion that medical interns should work for free, or that medicine should be extended to 6 years specifically to make internship unpaid without any consideration, made me feel so much pain in my heart. I always ask myself: why do fellow doctors always wish the worst for their colleagues? You literally know what it means to be an intern, working 36 hours nonstop. We have seen interns fall into severe depression due to stress. You know that medical internship is more stressful than military training. I understand the public saying anything, they don’t know, but you know how much pain one goes through. In medical school, fellow doctors will want to fail you and see you repeat a year, yet medicine is already 5 years and very stressful. Still, they find so much happiness in seeing others suffer, as long as you are a colleague. I am deeply disappointed in you, lecturers who know what 5 years of medicine means, yet still fail medical students without serious cause, often out of malice. Research supervisors who know that most master’s programs are 2 years and part-time, while medical programs are 3+ years full-time, yet still try to make others repeat, not because they are incapable, but out of spite. You disappear when students need you most to complete their research. During my internship, we had no weekends, no public holidays, and had to do a minimum of two night shifts every week. Shifts were 36 hours. For example, you start Monday morning, do ward rounds with seniors until about 3:00 PM. After that, interns remain to implement everything discussed. Those on night duty continue until morning without sleep, managing a full ward with very limited staff. By morning, seniors do not allow you to leave until you join the next ward round. So after 24+ hours, you continue working the entire day and only leave in the evening, just to rest briefly and start again the next day. Most times, the following day you are in clinic, seeing so many patients that your brain feels overwhelmed. I remember once falling asleep in front of a patient because I was extremely exhausted, every part of me felt drained. Now imagine doing all this and still having to worry about finding food. I had a business that was doing well, but the moment I started internship, it collapsed completely. There is simply no way to earn while doing internship. We used to run clinics seeing over 200 patients with only two interns. It sounds impossible, but it is real. A regional referral hospital can serve up to 20 districts. In a hypertensive clinic, 200 patients is actually on the lower side. On such days, we would start at 7 AM and finish at night without eating. Patients would get frustrated, but we were doing everything humanly possible. We were four interns in internal medicine. When two were running clinic, the other two were managing a full ward alone, and you know they were suffering. We used to receive a stipend of 750,000 UGX per month from the government. It was small, but at least we could pay rent (around 200k) and afford some food and transport. In some districts, even finding accommodation is difficult. In my life as a doctor, the people who have shown me the harshest side of this profession have been fellow doctors. You see them in leadership and think they will advocate for you, but they don’t. My recommendation to medical students, well-wishers, and UMA: meaningful change will likely come from Parliament or the President. Unfortunately, doctors in leadership often make things worse. The first time interns received improved pay was when the late Hon. Jacob Oulanyah heard their concerns, along with the President. However, it did not last because some doctors reportedly advised that the funds were being wasted. @Thomas_Tayebwa @AnitahAmong @MinofHealthUG @DianaAtwine