Residence Kampala, Uganda Citizenship Uganda Known for Public service | Nationality Ugandan Years active 1995 — present Home town Lira | |
 | ||
Occupation Pediatrician, researcher, medical administrator Alma maters Makerere University, Uganda Management Institute | ||
Jane Ruth Aceng MBChB, MMed, MPH, Dip.PAM is a Ugandan pediatrician and politician. She is the Minister of Health in the Cabinet of Uganda. She was appointed to that position on 6 June 2016. Before that, from June 2011 until June 2016, she served as the director of medical services in the Ugandan Ministry of Health.
Contents
Background and education
She holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, a Master of Medicine in Pediatrics, and a Master of Public Health, all from the Makerere University College of Health Sciences. She also holds a diploma in Public Administration and Management from the Uganda Management Institute.
Career
Her service began when she was a medical officer in the health ministry. At the time she was appointed director general of medical services, she was serving as executive director of Lira Regional Referral Hospital.
Other considerations
Aceng is a member of the board of directors of the Infectious Diseases Institute. She also served as a member of the board of National Medical Stores, the pharmaceutical procurement and distribution arm of the health ministry.
Controversy
As early as 2014, three variables in the national health system began to converge to the level of a crisis.
As a consequence, the ministry of health has been pitted against the SHOs who are not compensated at all and the interns who are poorly and irregularly paid. In an attempt to conserve funds, Aceng as minister has accused some universities of graduating too many substandard doctors, although both the Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners Council (UMDPC) and the East African Community Medical and Dental Practitioners Boards and Councils disagree with her. These are the statutory government agencies in the East African Community which are mandated to maintain the standard of medical and dental training and physician and dentist competency.
Perhaps the most controversial of all her proposals is the new requirement that interns take a new national examination, before the health ministry can assign them an internship slot. This has not gone well with the 2016/2017 intern class, prompting a lawsuit that is still winding through the legal system.