The Uganda medical and dental practitioners council is asking the government to support the private health units with salary relief and enhancements especially to the laid off staff during this challenging time of COVID 19 lock down.
While appearing before the parliamentary committee on national economy chaired by Syda Bumba to give a report on the impact of COVID 19 , the chairperson of Uganda medical and dental council Joel Okullo noted that many staffs were laid off and others sent on forced leave because the private facilities could not raise the money to pay for their services.
Okullo also appealed to government to give a tax waiver for investors who manufacture medical supplies in order to create sustainability in supplies because most of them are imported .
The council also requested the government to provide soft loans for local investors in the health sector especially those in rural areas so that the health professionals can invest in facilities that can provide sustainable services to the population of Uganda.
The council has also urged the government to expeditiously handle the national health insurance scheme bill so that it can be enacted into act so that the funds generated from the scheme will be placed back in the health system so as to reduce repeated borrowing for health projects.
The MPs on the committee however challenged the doctors on the Uganda medical and dental practitioner council to emulate their fellows in Madagascar and also to try their best to innovate and come up with a relief medicine for COVID 19 because the virus might stay around for some time.