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I have read a lot about government plans to export at least 241 medical workers to Trinidad and Tobago and how some Ugandans are not happy with this project. The Institute of Public Policy and Research (IPPR), a Ugandan think-tank, is suing the government in what is said to be one of the first ever public interest litigation cases concerning medical brain drain against the Attorney General.
This petition was filed in the High Court in December last year, the IPPR argues that government recruitment of public health workers for another government violates the constitutional rights of Ugandans to access basic medical services. The group is seeking an interim injunction to halt the imminent export of the workers.
How can this man-power indebted country train Ugandans and after training them, export them to another country? My humble opinion on all this is that the governments of Trinidad and Tobago mobilise Shs10 billion to train Uganda’s students whom upon graduation, will be flown to Trinindad and Tobago to work there.
Since A-Level results are out, let them call for applications from students willing to be trained and later be exported. I believe by 2020, their desires of having Uganda’s labour work in their country will be achieved. The Shs10 billion is to cater for university fees and other necessary requirements that the students will need during the course of their studies in various universities in the country. Alternatively, they can be flown to Trinidad and Tobago, trained there and then absorbed into the system. That way critics will not accuse government of exporting labour that has been trained using Ugandan taxpayers’ money.
According to the shortlist of health workers who were set to be exported includes scores of nurses and midwives as well as anesthetists, psychiatrists, ophthalmologists, radiographers, gynecologists, pediatricians, pathologists and surgeons. We need all these people here. So train other personnel whose end goal is to be exported.
Julius Odeke,
jodeke@gmail.com
