More than 100 health workers in Ugandan hospitals are crying foul after going five months without salary despite the soaring Covid19 cases.
The medics who are attached to Entebbe hospital which was the first to receive and treat Covid19 patients, said they have been working on promises since August but they can no longer tolerate attending to Covid19 patients with uncertainty over their wages.
“We have been sleeping here since Covid19 was first detected in Uganda. Our families have almost forgotten us. What is now paining us is the fact that our salary and allowances have not come since August,” the doctors shared to local television reporter.
Uganda detected her first Covid19 case on March21 and the patient was treated at Entebbe hospital since he was returning from Dubai. From that moment, health workers at Entebbe hospital have been at the forefront of treating Covid19 patients.
Emmanuel Ainebyoona, ministry of health’s spokesperson, told journalists that the ministry has already distributed money to all department and district accounts. Ainebyoona urged the health workers to raise the complaints of their unpaid salary to their immediate supervisors.
Dr Okwaru Ebuku, who is the former president of Uganda Medical Workers’ Association, said a number of his colleagues have survived Covid19 while others have succumbed to the same contagious disease.
Ministry of health records show more than 1000 health workers have been infected with Covid19 while 14 have died. Health workers have died in Kampala, Mbale, Rakai and other hospitals. Medics have also expressed worry over unreliable personal protective gears.
Uganda has registered 28,168 Covid19 cases of which 10005 have recovered. In total 228 people have been killed by Covid19. Uganda’s capital Kampala and its neighbouring district of Wakiso are currently the epicenters for the disease.