Following the new directives issued by H.EX, the President in his address of Friday 18th June, 2021 to the country on COVID-19 containment measures that included the cessation of public and private transport, the Ministry of Health is mandated to maintain essential and emergency medical services.
This mandate entails movement of health and frontline workers in both public and private facilities (doctors, nurses, midwives lab technologists, pharmacists). The movement of patients encompasses; emergency patients, scheduled patients for drug refills (HIV/AIDs, Diabetes, Cancer and hypertension) and those with scheduled clinic appointments.
With the new containment measures, the Ministry of Health would like to guide as follows;
The Ministry of Works and Transport will be responsible for issuing movement permits for 20% of the essential staff within all Ministries, departments and Agencies (MDA) through an online system.
In the districts, the movement permits for health and frontline workers, both in public and private health facilities will be issued by the district health officers (DHOs).
All health workers should move with the movement permit, their work identification cards and those without should those be given authorization letters by the heads of the health facilities to enable easy movement to their respective facilities.
In Kampala, health workers should move with both their work IDs and national IDs between Friday and Monday as they wait for movement permits to be issued by the Ministry of Works and transport.
The responsible officer/ person in the health facility/ institution will download a movement request form from MoWT website. This form will then be filled and submitted to the same link with names of the health workers and other essential workers that will be working throughout this period.
The Ministry of Works and Transport will either accept or deny permission of the request. Feedback will be communicated through the same link where a movement permit will be generated once permission is granted.
The movement permit will have a QR code, name of the health/essential worker, name of the place of work and the National Identification Number (NIN). The permit will still be down loaded from the MoWT provided online link.
Patients going to hospital for drug refills, scheduled appointments and treatment shall be able to use the available mode of transport at their own cost provided that they have proof of their medical records.
The Ministry of health requests the enforcement officers/ security personnel to exercise highest levels of judgment and sensitivity while implementing the newly issued Presidential directives, more especially health workers and patients. Please note that movement guidelines for health workers and patients are subject to modification whenever need arises.
The presidential directives are temporary and aimed at interrupting the current exponential transmission levels of COVID-19 in the country.