Ugandan doctors excel abroad despite concerns over training standards

The Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners Council (UMDPC) has defended the quality of Ugandan-trained doctors, insisting they continue to perform strongly on the global stage, despite concerns from sections of the scientific community over the rising number of medical graduates and fears that the surge could compromise training standards.

Speaking at a meeting convened to review the performance of healthcare workers and propose reforms to improve quality, UMDPC Deputy Registrar Dr Ivan Kisuule said the Council is introducing an internationally recognised scorecard to assess both medical training institutions and graduates entering the workforce.

According to Kisuule, Ugandan doctors seeking employment abroad have consistently excelled in international qualifying examinations. He noted that this strong performance has informed a proposal to introduce a national universal exam that all locally trained doctors must pass before deployment.

At an earlier conference of Medical Councils in Africa held late 2025, delegates urged governments to tighten regulation of medical schools. The meeting pointed to a rapid increase in training institutions, from a single medical school at Makerere University in the 1990s to about fourteen today, raising questions about whether quality has kept pace with expansion.

Some stakeholders have proposed capping student admissions based on available training infrastructure. However, Kisuule maintains that existing regulatory measures are already stringent. He explained that institutions are required to maintain a lecturer-to-student ratio of 1:25 and that any school scoring below 50 per cent during inspections is shut down.

Despite these assurances on training standards, the Uganda Medical Association (UMA) argues that the more pressing issue lies beyond education, specifically, the failure to absorb qualified doctors into the health system.

UMA President Dr Frank Asiimwe says that although doctors are trained with the expectation that they will be absorbed into the health system, many remain unemployed. He added that those who are employed are often overworked and burnt out, leaving them unable to give patients adequate time, which in turn limits access to proper medical care for many people.

Uganda’s doctor-to-patient ratio currently stands at approximately 1:25,000, far below the World Health Organisation’s recommended ratio of 1:1,000. Within the region, Uganda performs better only than South Sudan, which has an estimated ratio of 1:65,000.

Other countries, such as Kenya (1:10,000), Ethiopia (1:10,000), Rwanda (1:8,500), Burundi (1:15,000), and Tanzania (1:20,000), all fare better. Ironically, even as the country struggles with a shortage of doctors, about 300 Ugandan doctors leave annually in search of employment opportunities abroad, according to UMDPC data.