The rot in Uganda health care system deteriorates every day.

500 Ugandan doctors working in Kenya

One Mwangi, a Kenyan medical doctor recently posted this statement on social media and it has been haunting me for a while.

“I have come to learn two things about Ugandans. You only complain about your healthcare system when something is wrong with you as an individual. Secondly you vote a government back into power that for the last 30 years has failed to bring your healthcare system into the 3rd world without taking it into account. You are a 4th world medical power that produces 1st world doctors. Makerere Medical School today would rank top 4th in Africa.”

Mwangi added that anyone who lectures at that Makerere Medical School is a world class doctor. Forget about those in private practice. Uganda government should concentrate on Mulago National hospital, and regional referral hospitals such as Jinja, Mbarara and Gulu as centres of excellence.

“My boss is a Ugandan doctor who left because of not just poor pay but poor infrastructure. He now earns 700,000 kshs. Your President has only done one thing that we Kenyans respect him for, bring you stability and build a powerful army,” he added.

"In terms of service delivery he is an absolute failure! We are told that Museveni cannot even get treatment in Mulago. How do you choose your own personal doctor to investigate poor service delivery? No wonder she did not name poor remuneration of doctors as a problem."

Mwangi concluded by judging Ugandans for the health systems failure, “So, you as Ugandans are to blame for your poor healthcare system. We have about 500 Ugandan doctors working here and they feel nothing for you because they think you are the cause. So style up and put the government to task. If you value your lives you should put doctors in a separate class of servants. In all first world countries they are among the highest paid individuals and they are made to account for that money through their work. It's only in Uganda where witch doctors earn more than their medical counterparts. You should be ashamed!”

All ANIMALS are equal, but SOME animals are more equal than others

According to a story published by the Daily Monitor on 14th February, President Museveni has ordered that former Information Minister and Nakaseke Woman MP, Ms Rose Namayanja, who survived a motor accident last year, be flown to India for a fresh operation.

Sources told Sunday Monitor that Ms Namayanja, the NRM’s national treasurer, was on steady recovery before the doctors at Nakasero Hospital realised that the nail they had implanted in her broken right thigh was about to give way.

Sources say the X-ray conducted by the doctors showed that the nail they had fixed in her fractured thigh was too small yet they needed a thicker one.

They recommended that she seeks medical attention from a specialised hospital in India to save the situation before it becomes worse.

President’s quick action

When the President received this explanation; he ordered that Ms Namayanja be flown to India immediately. She left the country on Thursday. She is expected to spend there between three to five weeks. The hospital could not be readily established.

When contacted yesterday, Mr. Rogers Mulindwa, the communications officer at the NRM secretariat, confirmed that Namayanja had been referred to India for specialised treatment.

Since October last year, Ms Namayanja has been nursing a femur bone fracture she sustained in a car accident in Kigogwa on the Kampala-Gulu highway.

Uganda Government should equip its hospitals instead of sending "blessed" few abroad for treatment.

In my opinion, yes it was good for the government to come in and take the Minister to India for better health services because it was a matter of saving her life. But who cares about the 19 mothers die every day while giving birth? Who cares about those poor mothers lying on Mulago hospital floors with their babies waiting for a vacant bed? About 6,000 women in Uganda die every year during childbirth, and a woman stands a 1 in 13 chance of dying while giving birth within her lifetime. Only 59 percent of births between 2006 and 2011 were delivered by a doctor or nurse/midwife, and only 57 percent were delivered in a health facility (UDHS 2011).

Who cares about that midwife who has to deliver an average of 10 mothers a day? Who cares about how much she earns?

Who cares about the shortage of HIV ARV drugs in the country? Yes the Global Fund helped by frontloading the medicine but what will happen after nine months when the medicine is finished?

People in Northern Uganda are dying of Hepatitis B and nothing is being done about it. Who cares? Who cares about poor Ugandan who cannot even afford to buy a certain type of medicine prescribed by a doctor?

When will this habit of sending “big people” abroad for treatment stop? Can you imagine how much tax payers’ money is going to be spent in just three weeks? May be we should all migrate to India since Uganda has invested in Indian hospitals. If Ms. Namayanja had advocated for better health care in district may be she would be getting treatment from Nakaseke hospital instead of India. To make matters worse, she might treated by a Ugandan doctor who went to India in search of greener pastures.

In summary it is high time that Uganda government wakes up and improves the health care system. Uganda Government should equip its hospitals instead of sending "blessed" few abroad for treatment. Increase salaries of health workers to stop them from seeking for greener pastures. Since we have the best doctors in Africa, all we need is the right equipment, medicine and motivation of health workers.