{UAH} Allan/Pojim/WBK: Leave the Abim nurses alone and sack CAO

http://www.observer.ug/viewpoint/41608-leave-the-abim-nurses-alone-and-sack-cao

Leave the Abim nurses alone and sack CAO

Written by Pius Muteekani Katunzi

Last Updated: 14 December 2015

Certain things only happen in Uganda. It is in Uganda where the ratio of doctors to patients is 1:15,000 or more; and in some cases, there are no doctors at all.

It is only in Uganda that the government backs the export of health professionals to other countries, as was in the recent case to Trinidad and Tobago. It is only in Uganda where one nurse attends to over six patients in five minutes. It is only here that a district chief administrative officer deems it fit to deprive a hospital of even the few personnel that have endured and stayed.

Right now, the fate and status of three nurses at Abim hospital: Paska Akello, Santina Adong and Innocent Owillio is unknown. Their troubles started when they took Forum for Democratic Changer flag bearer Kizza Besigye around their ignored and dilapidated hospital.

This is a public hospital which was built in the 1960s and it is aptly called a deathtrap because of its sorry state. Either out of embarrassment or wholesome support for the ruling party, administrators at this hospital and the district want these nurses punished.

One of the reasons is that they usurped the powers of the hospital spokesman when they spoke and revealed sensitive information to Dr Besigye. But Dr Besigye needed not to have toured this hospital to know that it is in a sorry state. His visit was just symbolic; that hospital is an open book.

We all know that Abim hospital has no sensitive information. It is naked. The theatre has no running water; the sewage system stopped functioning many years ago; the sterilizers don't work and the creative nurses resorted to sterilizing their equipment using charcoal stoves.

The people refer to this hospital as a deathtrap because of the breakdown of the workers' morale and facilities. When some patients are taken there, the chances of catching more infection are higher than those of healing! But even then, people here still need their nurses; because despite the squalid and hard conditions, these nurses can at least scratch around and offer a service to the desperate patients.

I would like to hazard an answer why the administrators are more worried about breaching the standing orders than ensuring that the sick retain the few nurses that can endure the conditions.

First, it is only in Uganda where government officials, starting from senior civil servants, to ministers, legislators to the head of state, are not taken to public hospitals. When senior politicians fall ill, they are either flown to Nairobi or other worthy hospitals abroad. And so are their spouses and children. If that cannot be done immediately, then they are driven to private hospitals in Kampala. And who foots the bill? You and I, the taxpayers!

When the treasurer of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), Rose Namayanja, was involved in a road accident, she was driven to Nakasero hospital, instead of perhaps Mulago, the national referral hospital. Very embarrassing!

President Museveni even visited her at Nakasero and praised the services offered there! What is that supposed to mean in terms of the confidence and relevance of public hospitals?

If Namayanja had been admitted to Mulago, it would have been a plus for the party that has been in power longer than all others combined.

Unfortunately, they also have no faith in their hospitals. Who, then, should trust these facilities?

So, when a chief administrative officer insists on defending the sanctity of the standing orders, he is not doing so because he thinks they should be enforced at all times; no, he has no idea what it means for patients to be without nurses.

The clash between the interests of the administrator and those of the patients is so obvious; because while the former is supposed to work for the interests of the latter, it is a farce altogether! There is also a culture of civil servants demonizing opposition politicians.

Is Besigye or Mbabazi a pariah? How come they are not discriminated against when they are needed to pay taxes? Already, even Kabale national referral hospital blocked Mbabazi from visiting. We really have a country! Or should I say there was once a country where all Ugandans were treated equally and with dignity?

Unless public servants and very important persons (VIPs) stop turning hospitals abroad into their first-call and referral facilities, we shall never equally understand that Uganda does not need to export nurses; that Uganda needs to invest in the education health workers and maintenance of public hospitals. While some people claim to have vision, it is clear that we lack the national vision.

I hope sobriety prevails and the administrators rescind the suspension letter for these three nurses who shunned other places and decided to serve the Abim people.
pmkatunzi@observer.ug
The author is the finance director of The Observer Media Limited.

Leave the Abim nurses alone and sack CAO

http://www.observer.ug/viewpoint/41608-leave-the-abim-nurses-alone-and-sack-cao

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