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When
President Museveni visited a health centre a few weeks ago and summarily
dismissed all the employees without a hearing, there was an outcry. The
residents of Nakawuka had indicted their caregivers and in one swoop,
the President was having none of this. In practice, the President cannot
fire these people, they don’t serve at his pleasure; they enjoy civil
service protections so at the most they will either be transferred or
indicted.
Photo opportunities and sound bites are relied upon by leaders to show they are in charge and are taking care of a situation. The residents of Nakawuka, located in a blighted district stretching from Buwaya to Kasanje where mairungi is the discreet major cash crop, were happy for a moment but the new staff they receive are likely to be the same.
Travelling to Nakawuka requires pulling hairs; it is an area with low economic activity, so very few PSVs ply this route. Most decentralised workers rarely stay at their duty stations. Their families prefer that they stay closer to schools their children attend. Some stretches of this road are still without electricity or any form of piped water. In neighbouring Kasanje, sand mining has laid to waste farmland with numerous dangerous sand pits that become ‘burial grounds’ for children in the rainy season.
In the major dinner with medical personnel, where the President offered a Sacco to support the doctors, a few public mistakes were evident. The President’s receiving line that was published in this paper was dominated by people who abandoned clinical medicine a long time ago for the same reasons the workers in Nakawuka did. I craned my head looking for my friend the pathologist from Mulago who painstakingly helps families confirm diagnoses like cancer before advising for treatment, more than 15 years in practice and a fellow of the royal college. I looked for some of the surviving district medical officers, medical superintendents from upcountry who struggle to man hospitals and I couldn’t see any of them. I looked for the director of Arua Regional Referral Hospital who recently posted a run-out of critical surgery supplies at his hospital; or the regional nursing officer in Hoima, resilient under difficult conditions.
In their place, I saw an individual dressed in red hot pants with almost pyrotechnic effects. I wondered when he had last touched a septic wound. I saw a schoolmate of mine who probably last worked in a hospital during internship. I saw another very senior doctor who long abandoned her duty station. I was happy to see her well and strong but I doubt she, like the others mentioned, are still in touch with the grass roots. In the room were very senior retired medical consultants, etc.
In one of the emails after last week’s column, a retired medical doctor in Fort Portal, who is just 65, offered that part of the problem can be alleviated if senior medical officers and specialist doctors are given a special package to fill current vacancies to ensure continuity of care. He was five years in retirement, last pay was Shs1.4 million. The district local government pay schedule tops out at Shs2 million for a CAO, an eighth wonder of the world given that this is the top district civil servant who is on the ready to go to jail if any drop of money disappears.
In this environment, inputs disappear, pharmaceutical supplies arrive expired. When Kalangala’s medical officer rejected expired drugs from National Medical Stores, there was an uproar. The cancer institute has an even bigger complaint. I find these dinners potentially doing what they do - pushing problems under the carpet until the next outburst or strike.
Mr Ssemogerere is an Attorney-at-Law and an Advocate. kssemoge@gmail.com
SOURCE: MONITOR
Photo opportunities and sound bites are relied upon by leaders to show they are in charge and are taking care of a situation. The residents of Nakawuka, located in a blighted district stretching from Buwaya to Kasanje where mairungi is the discreet major cash crop, were happy for a moment but the new staff they receive are likely to be the same.
Travelling to Nakawuka requires pulling hairs; it is an area with low economic activity, so very few PSVs ply this route. Most decentralised workers rarely stay at their duty stations. Their families prefer that they stay closer to schools their children attend. Some stretches of this road are still without electricity or any form of piped water. In neighbouring Kasanje, sand mining has laid to waste farmland with numerous dangerous sand pits that become ‘burial grounds’ for children in the rainy season.
In the major dinner with medical personnel, where the President offered a Sacco to support the doctors, a few public mistakes were evident. The President’s receiving line that was published in this paper was dominated by people who abandoned clinical medicine a long time ago for the same reasons the workers in Nakawuka did. I craned my head looking for my friend the pathologist from Mulago who painstakingly helps families confirm diagnoses like cancer before advising for treatment, more than 15 years in practice and a fellow of the royal college. I looked for some of the surviving district medical officers, medical superintendents from upcountry who struggle to man hospitals and I couldn’t see any of them. I looked for the director of Arua Regional Referral Hospital who recently posted a run-out of critical surgery supplies at his hospital; or the regional nursing officer in Hoima, resilient under difficult conditions.
In their place, I saw an individual dressed in red hot pants with almost pyrotechnic effects. I wondered when he had last touched a septic wound. I saw a schoolmate of mine who probably last worked in a hospital during internship. I saw another very senior doctor who long abandoned her duty station. I was happy to see her well and strong but I doubt she, like the others mentioned, are still in touch with the grass roots. In the room were very senior retired medical consultants, etc.
In one of the emails after last week’s column, a retired medical doctor in Fort Portal, who is just 65, offered that part of the problem can be alleviated if senior medical officers and specialist doctors are given a special package to fill current vacancies to ensure continuity of care. He was five years in retirement, last pay was Shs1.4 million. The district local government pay schedule tops out at Shs2 million for a CAO, an eighth wonder of the world given that this is the top district civil servant who is on the ready to go to jail if any drop of money disappears.
In this environment, inputs disappear, pharmaceutical supplies arrive expired. When Kalangala’s medical officer rejected expired drugs from National Medical Stores, there was an uproar. The cancer institute has an even bigger complaint. I find these dinners potentially doing what they do - pushing problems under the carpet until the next outburst or strike.
Mr Ssemogerere is an Attorney-at-Law and an Advocate. kssemoge@gmail.com
SOURCE: MONITOR
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