Health PS says Ministry to Recruit 220 Health Workers

by Valerian Kkonde

PEARL NEWS SERVICE

Health workers in Italy putting on protective gear as they attend to Corid-19 patients. AFP Photo

The Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Health has said that a recruitment drive for 220 health workers, at different levels, is under way.

Dr. Diana Atwine made the revelation during a press conference on April 2^nd, 2020. She said that the health workers are needed to beef up the Covid-19 Response Team of the ministry.

“Already health officials from the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces- UPDF, at different levels, have joined the ministry.”

The PS added that the move is a response to the planning team that is trying to ready itself for any eventuality should the Covid-19 crisis get to alarming levels.

Dr. Atwine called on the public to cheer up; assuring the country that these dark moments will clear up soon. She urged people to engage in some physical exercises and to help the young ones to make sense out of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Doctors in Uganda are poorly paid and this has led to the search of greener pastures to neighbourng countries like Rwanda that pays far more than Uganda, Other doctors are working in Kenya, South Africa and in the world’s developed nations.

It remains to be seen whether, during this critical time, the officials of the medical profession will be spared the humiliation of having to remind their employers to improve their working conditions and offer them a salary befitting the tasks before them.