Across Uganda, nurses and midwives continue to carry the weight of the health system—providing care, comfort, and lifesaving services in some of the toughest working environments. Yet behind their compassion and dedication lies a painful, rarely spoken reality: the growing frustration, financial strain, and emotional exhaustion caused by the bureaucratic and sometimes corrupt processes around registration and renewal of practicing licenses.
What should be a simple, transparent, and efficient online renewal process has, for many, become a nightmare. Instead of easing their workload, the system often traps nurses and midwives in endless cycles of document uploads, approvals that never arrive, and unexplained delays that stretch for months and, in some cases, years.
The most heartbreaking part is that many professionals working in government facilities have stopped renewing their licenses, not due to lack of willingness, but because the process has become discouraging, stressful, and deeply unfair.
A Broken System
Many practitioners report being asked to re-upload the same documents repeatedly, even after submitting them correctly the first time. More disturbing are claims that approvals can be accelerated—but only if one is willing to “facilitate” certain individuals.
There are growing concerns of:
- Files deliberately delayed
- Applicants prioritized only after making payments
- Middlemen working alongside insiders in the system
- Nurses being extorted for something they are already entitled to — timely license renewal
This situation is not just unfair —it is unacceptable.
The Questions That Hurt
If the system is online, why are nurses being asked to upload the same documents again and again?
If online renewal was meant to simplify the process, why has it become a source of stress, fear, and financial exploitation?
If the Council exists to protect the profession, why does it appear to be causing pain to the very people it was created to serve?
An online system should represent efficiency, transparency, and accountability, not a breeding ground for corruption and frustration.
Something Must Be Done
Nurses and midwives already carry heavy emotional, mental, and physical loads from their work in wards, clinics, and communities. They should not have to fight another battle simply to renew a license that enables them to serve.
Reform is urgently needed.
Accountability is urgently needed.
A functional system is urgently needed.
Uganda cannot continue ignoring the silent suffering of its frontline health workers. When the licensing system fails, the entire health sector is placed at risk.
POEM: The License That Bleeds
We stand in white,
Hearts steady, hands strong,
Serving a nation
That has leaned on us for long.
But behind our smiles
A silent tear flows,
For the journey to renew
What is rightfully ours—
No one truly knows.
Documents uploaded,
Again and again,
Months turn to years,
Yet nothing moves—
Only pain.
We hear whispers in corridors
Of those approved first,
Not by merit,
Not by order,
But by the weight of a purse.
Middlemen roam freely,
Knocking at our hope,
“Give something small,” they say,
“That’s the only way to cope.”
Is this the essence of online?
Is this what progress meant?
A digital doorway
Turned into a gate of torment?
Oh Uganda, hear us
Your daughters and sons plead:
Fix the system that fails us,
Stop the corruption that feeds.
For a license should be a right,
Not a wound that bleeds.
