{UAH} Allan/Pojim/WBK: State House reveals more rot in Mulago
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State House reveals more rot in Mulago
State House and ministry of Health officials squared off in parliament on Monday and Tuesday in a never-before-seen public feud.
According to Diana Atwine, the State House director of the health monitoring unit, Ugandans are suffering long bouts of poor health largely because the leadership of the health sector isn't fighting the endemic laxity, false accounting, procurement and supply of expired drugs and the deliberate refusal by officials to plan and embrace usage of modern technology.
Atwine used her appearance before the parliamentary committee on health to reveal the rot in the health sector. Also in attendance was Dr Chris Baryomunsi, the minister of state for Health, the permanent secretary Dr Asuman Lukwago and several representatives from the National Medical Stores, National Drug Authority, and Butabika and Mulago hospitals. The ministry and its officials were in parliament to defend their policy statements for the 2016/17 budget cycle.
"There is a big problem and if we are going to cure this problem, we must be able to embrace the truth," Atwine said, adding that resources allocated to the ministry are enough if used rightly.
She said her efforts to clean up the sector are sabotaged by leaders in all government health facilities who are exploiting the weak systems. She warned that the continued lack of supervision and unwillingness to change methods of work by heads of ministry departments exposes Ugandans to danger because the poor cannot seek treatment abroad.
Stung by Atwine's claims, an enraged Lukwago tried to interject but members of the parliamentary committee chaired by Dr Medard Bitekyerezo (Mbarara municipality) urged restraint.
The MPs asked Lukwago to allow Atwine make her case. "I am not here to antagonize anybody. Truth should be told and take these issues with love. I feel bad when the media ridicules our health system," she said.
She also shared how she was blocked by people in authority from presenting her findings and recommendations to the intended receivers, who would have improved service delivery in the country. Atwine told the MPs that different departments at Mulago national referral hospital face too many challenges yet the hospital heads are reluctant to listen.
According to her, unless the mess is investigated and recommendations are duly implemented, nothing better should be expected from the ministry of health. Atwine said ambulances are fueled but the fuel is later siphoned out at washing bays and other places without any follow-up.
To this, she had recommended installation of tracking devices for easy monitoring but authorities didn't embrace her idea because they are complicit in the scheme.
According to Daily Monitor, Lukwago and Dr Baterana Byarugaba, the Mulago hospital executive director, angrily dismissed Atwine's views as populist. They said Mulago is ill-funded and saddled with debts owed by government ministries, departments, and agencies.
"What we are doing in Mulago hospital is purely scientific and it is done by people who are underpaid but don't sleep in order to deliver the services within the available means," Lukwago said.
Byarugaba reminded Atwine and the MPs that the hospital is too underfunded to the extent that they are spending Shs 1,500 on breakfast, lunch and supper for the patients. The hospital also spends Shs 7,000 to operate a patient.
"I don't have an MRI machine [a non-invasive medical test that physicians use to diagnose and treat medical conditions], where do you want me to get the images? I need the money to buy the machine," he said.
"You give me money for essential services and you demand super servives, I get them from where? We cannot send people away because there are no other government hospitals where they can go to. We are handling Katogo and as far as absenteeism is concerned, we don't condone misconduct; we delete the culprits from the payroll."
QUALITY OF DOCTORS
MPs also demanded an investigation into the quality of doctors trained from Kampala International University (KIU). They said doctors from KIU are half-baked and fake.
"Investigations into the quality of the doctors should be done in order to verify whether they are of any benefit to this country. You find one who scored zeros at A-level also admitted at the university to study medicine. I spoke to the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) and they said everything was okay; how can such be okay?" Bitekyerezo asked.
According to Atwine, she has visited several hospitals and found that doctors from KIU medical school, which produces the biggest number of intern doctors, do not know much about the profession.
The student doctors' lack of knowledge was attributed to a lack of supervision by the ministry of education and other relevant authorities like the NCHE.
MPs heard that KIU enrolls and graduates about 800 student doctors annually but they do not cut the grade of doctors. "They are not trained, not supervised and in the next five years they are the ones the country will have as its cream. It's a pity that our children are going to be managed by these people," Atwine told MPs.
"The biggest number of intern doctors is from that university [KIU]. What are we doing? If we can't stop it at the entry, then I don't think we shall do it at the exit." Bitekyerezo said.
Committee member Dr Kenneth Omona argued that many of these poorly-trained doctors spend a lot of time on social media networks such as WhatsApp chatting with colleagues instead of attending to patients.
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