Medical interns who do not report to their duty stations by Saturday, 15 August will forfeit their placements, the Minister of Health, Hon. Chris Baryomunsi has warned. 
Baryomunsi made the statement in response to a concern raised by the Leader of the Opposition (LoP), Hon. Joel Ssenyonyi, during plenary sitting on Wednesday, 12 August 2026. 
Ssenyonyi warned that the medical interns, together with doctors countrywide have planned an industrial action, if the impasse is not resolved. 
“I have received a letter, as a member of the public from the President of the Uganda Medical Association to key stakeholders of a plan to undertake industrial action, if in 14 days government has not addressed facilitation of medical interns,” he said. 

Dr. Baryomunsi’s comments come amid concerns over the shift in the health training policy, wherein government scrapped off the payment of shs1, 000,000 for each medical student undertaking internship.
“I will ask for an update from the directors of hospitals and medical interns who do not report will have forfeited their places,” said Baryomunsi. 
He said that whilst government is finalising consultations over the policy changes, the interns are expected to report to their duty stations. 
“We have held cordial discussions with the medical interns and we urge them to heed to their deployments. They should not be misguided,” he said. 
He gave his reassurance that government is committed towards finding a solution to the issue on the interns. 
“We appreciate the work that they do and that is why I am asking for more time to complete consultations. There is goodwill from government and I urge the interns not to resort to confrontational ways of resolving the matter,” Baryomunsi said. 
Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa called on the Minister to hasten the consultation process and resolve the matter. 
“We hope you can conclude the consultations. I do hope that on Monday you can raise the matter in Cabinet then on Tuesday you can give us a final position,” said Tayebwa. 
Under the medical education and internship policy, medical students are expected to complete a mandatory supervised clinical internship before receiving their university degrees.