By: Kyeyune Ali
On Saturday while at Mulago Guest House, Uganda Nurses and Midwifery Association expressed their worry about the excessive number of professional nurses who leave the country for abroad maid jobs.
Justus Cherop asserts that this unfortunate trend was caused by the government that has failed to recruit nurses and Midwives in the public hospitals.
According to stats, over 2000 Nurses and Midwives are leaving Uganda to do house maids jobs in Arab countries.
“In other countries like Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania are freely exporting their nurses and other medical professionals but here in Uganda they leave the country as house maids or cleaners and this should come to an end” secretary general of Uganda Nurses and midwifery madam Annet Birungi.
“we were in UK recently and found over thousand nurses and Midwives Ugandans working there but there exportation story was amaizing.” She added.
Dr Elizabeth Kasirye the union’s National Treasurer questioned the government’s failure to recruit at least 50 percent of annual nurses and Midwives graduates, “we would like our nurses and Midwives to go abroad officially so that we can monitor them and fight for their rights in case of any challenge.”
According to the statistics, 5000-6000 nurses and Midwives graduate from various institutions annually.
The union president Justus Cherop said that the union plans to renew it’s demand for salary increment for its members ahead of 2025.
“we want our salaries increased by 4 percent because the cost of living has risen yet the income remained stagnant and highly taxed by the government and therefore more nurses and Midwives end up getting loans to cater forthere families.”
