Dr. Chris Baryomunsi, Minister of HealthBy Prisca WanyenyaThe Government of Uganda through the Ministry of Health has suspended the policy of not paying allowances to privately sponsored medical interns and have now agreed to pay all medical interns a monthly allowance of UGX1Million, as opposed to the earlier proposal that had earmarked these allowances to only Government sponsored students, bringing an end to the standstill in the health sector.The revelation was made by Dr. Chris Baryomunsi, Minister of Health during the 18th August 2026 plenary sitting, where he was providing an update on the standoff between Government and medical interns, who had refused to report for internship until their demands are met.“We did agree and the cabinet recommended that we suspend that provision of facilitation for medical interns, meaning that we pay them as it has been. So, going forward, the current cohort of interns will be paid the same amount, that is UGX1,268,929, and subject to tax, the net pay will be UGX1Million. So that differentiation between government-sponsored and private-sponsored has been suspended,” Dr. Baryomunsi said.Parliament was also informed that Cabinet agreed to suspend the policy earlier passed that required medical students to only qualify for graduation upon completing internship, with Dr. Baryomunsi arguing that this demand was unfair to medical students who opt out of practicing medicine and thus, the decision has been rescinded with Government choosing to retain the status quo where internship will be undertaken after graduation.“So the policy had proposed that when you complete the training, the academic training, you proceed for internship and then you graduate after internship. We have reversed it and said no, there should be a distinction between the academic qualification and qualification for practice,” he noted.“And therefore, the status quo shall remain, that the medical students will be undertaking their studies, when they pass the final exams, they will graduate, and then internship will be separate because you can choose to train as a doctor, and then you have to go and do internship outside the country. Or you want to go and do something else, you don’t want practice, that freedom should be allowed,” added Minister Baryomunsi.The Ministry of Health was also directed to report to Cabinet in six months with a paper detailing a study on exempting medical workers from paying income tax and how Government can absorb the unemployed medical workers into public healthcare system.“There are many doctors who are qualifying but are not being absorbed by government or they are not getting employment. We look at how many doctors do we need to train in the country, how do we absorb all those medical graduates, what pay should we provide to them as a government. The President is of the view and has vetted that we should not subject the pay of medical workers to tax, the way it is done to the soldiers and the army forces. So, cabinet directed me to prepare a report within six months, but I will do it within two months for the cabinet to address all these issues,” added Dr. Baryomunsi.Although the Leader of Opposition, Joel Ssenyonyi welcomed Government’s decision to rescind its earlier decision, he however asked the Ministry of Health to consider increasing the UGX1Million allowances to medical interns arguing that the amount isn’t in tandem with inflation and cost of living.He noted, “In fact, there was a time when government paid them a lot more for one financial year, and then went back to UGX1Million, and so they are saying, surely with inflation and passage of time and so on, UGX1Million five years ago is not the same today and it has been one of the issues they have been raising. So, I hope that in your continuous engagements, that can get to be incorporated. At least we are glad that government has acknowledged the fact that these interns are medical doctors, they are out there doing this work, and they need to be facilitated.”The Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa asked Government to provide Parliament with timely updates on critical issues taken in Cabinet noting, “There are critical decisions that you take in Cabinet, so I request that you at your Ministers, on such a critical decision, come and update the House so that we can add value where necessary. But all we could do is to inform our people and explain the situation.”The Ministry of Health revealed that the internship centres have been expanded to include the general district hospitals, thus bringing the total number of accredited internship centres to 77, and 2,490 interns have been deployed and these will include; medical doctors, dentists, surgeons, pharmacists, and graduate nurses.The post Gov’t Agrees to Pay All Medical Interns UGX1M Per Month appeared first on Business Focus.