IGG Exposes Rot in Health Sector

The Inspector General of Government (IGG), Beti Kamya Turwomwe on Tuesday tasked Health Sector Players to pull up their socks as far as service delivery is concerned or else they risk being fired from their positions or face the wrath of the long arm of the Law.

Ms. Kamya made the remarks during a Boardroom session on the state of service delivery in the Health Sector across the four Regions in the Country at Kampala Hotel Africana.

She said during a recent survey of service delivery carried out by the IGG’s office, a number of irresponsible behavior was observed in most Health Cntre 1Vs and Regional Referral Hospitals.

“These include; absenteeism of medical personnel from their duty stations, deplorable health facilities and medical doctors running private clinics adjacent to their official public health facilities workplaces”, she said.

She added that; corruption in Uganda’s Health Sector hinders access to vital services, worsening poverty and increasing inequality.

“Access to essential services across the country is often dependent on the ability to pay a bribe to the public servants who act as informal gatekeepers,” she added.

Mrs. Anne Twinomugisha Muhairwe, the Deputy IGG, said late coming of medical personnel at Health facilities, poor supervision, inadequate medicine supply and understaffing were additional challenges facing health facilities across the country.

She said soliciting money from patients by medical personnel and the habit of male medical personnel applying ‘sexual harassment” to their female counterparts in work places is another big challenge observed.

“During my tour of health facilities across all the four regions, I noted that some Doctors were running parallel jobs with other Private Health facilities, alongside their official work stations”, she said.

Moses Kamabare, Uganda Medical Stores (NMS) Manager, in defense of his sector, said money is not released on time to transport medicines to upcountry Health facilities. He said as a result, medicine expires within a short time after delivery to Health facilities.

“The money to transport medicine from NMS should be available by 1^st July and not in August of every financial year as has been our challenge at NMS”, he said.

The Meeting was also attended by officials from the Ministry of Local Government, Health and Parliamentary Committee on Health among others.