{UAH} One of the sad health stories from Uganda

By Habati Asinja Mubatsi

Three days ago my two babies got bitten by a dog. This incident exposed me to the reality of a broken health system in our country. I live 32km from Kampala City central business district. This 32km road route is dotted with two health centres -a health centre level 2 at Namulonge and a health level 3/4 at Kasangati. Immediately after the unfortunate dog bite incident we headed to Namulonge in search of an anti rabies jab but here they referred us to Kasangati. Quickly off we went to Kasangati only to be stopped by a traffic police officer at Kabanyolo who was determined to find any fault on the car and its driver. Luckily there was no traffic offense. When we reached Kasangati an elderly nurse felt sorry for us and referred us to Mulago national referral hospital. Is Mulago National Specialized Hospital now? 

At Mulago we were directed to Old Mulago hospital. There was a crowd of patients, attendants, gate askaris and health workers roaming the hospital premises. A kind askari directed us to the emergency sections that deal with emergencies especially road traffic accidents. The reception room was a veranda of the hospital building next to the entrance. Here an eyesore of patients with accident bruises with blood oozing and some patients sleeping in pain on the concrete potholed cement floor waited to be registered/received. A nurse dressed in a maroon blouse and trouser buried her head in the book writing or pretending to be writing. As soon as we explained to her that we needed urgent medical attention she screamed "come back tomorrow, I am going home." I was upset by her response but insisted our babies needed urgent medical attention as they had been bitten by an angry dog. She retorted,'' if you can't wait until tomorrow wait for the next health worker''. At this point my wife told her that she appreciated the fact that she was tired "but let's talk as adults and save these children". 

It is after hearing this that she opened up. She told us to wait for a moment as she registers us and secures the anti rabies vaccine. It took slightly an hour of waiting... When she emerged with the vaccines she asked me to go and buy the vaccine syringes at First Pharmacy quoting the price. The private pharmacy was another hustle to get the insulin syringes as the queue was long. Finally I got the insulin syringes and dashed towards the nurse. She injected my babies and advised that since the dog was vaccinated against rabies one jab to each of the babies was enough. Up to now I am not sure if her advice was correct and what kind adult talk my wife meant... the babies are fine and playful. The dog is permanently chained.

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*Abbey Kibirige  Semuwemba*

Stalk my blog at: http://semuwemba.wordpress.com

"Men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies is dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive." - Henry Steele Commager 1902-98

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