MUSEVEN: STOP APPOINTING CLINICAL OFFICERS TO WORK AS ASSISTANT DISTRICT HEALTH OFFICIALS

By Okoodi Abooki

www.mknewslink.com

In Ntungamo

President Yoweri Museveni has directed the ministry of health to stop appointing clinical officers to work as assistant district health officials in the country.

Speakink at Kyamate grounds yesterday 12^th  may 2019 in Ntungamo district during celebrations to mark nurses and midwives international day,Museveni said that hiring clinicians to work as nurses to manage health services at district level is criminal and suggested that those already employed should be removed and replaced with qualified nurses.

He was responding to concerns raised by the president of nurses and midwifes union Justus cherop kipulangat who complained that about twenty five districts in the country have hired clinicians to work as assistant district health officers yet nurses are not substantively employed by the line ministry.

President Museven In Ntungamo on Nurses and Midwives International Day.

Cherop insisted that clinicians should be restricted to health facilities to diagnose diseases.

He also appealed to government to regulate the rate at which medical institutions continue to train general nurses yet there are no specialized nurses in the country.

Cherop said that government should instead focus at training specialized nurses who can ably work in specialized hospitals rather than training nurses on job a trend he noted that may make them not competitive on the job market.

But the president down played their fear saying Ugandas population by 2050 will be one million people and that the country will need more nurses to match with the ratio of World Health Organization. Uganda currently has about sixty seven thousand nurses working in different health facilities in the country.

The president also promised to increase nurses lunch allowance from the current Two thousand shillings to Fifteen thousand shillings per day.

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