By James Galabuzi Mukasa
As I agree with the President that issues of security are very important in the development of our economy, however, I would wish to draw his attention to the importance of developing our health sector infrastructure. Uganda’s health sector is in a dire state. We have lost many of our people due to lack of basic medical utilities.
The Government should handle a health sector with a careful planning and focus on the wellbeing of her citizens in the understated ways:
Universal access: All citizens should have equitable access to healthcare services regardless of income or social status. A policy that reduces financial barriers to healthcare services should be put in place. Today without money no body will work on you. Sad!
Quality health care: establish and enforce standards for health care quality, safety and efficiency. Regularly Government should monitor and increase healthcare services.
Affordable medication: Implement policies to make essential medication affordable and accessible to the general public. When we were young, Mulago offered this service. Today without money, you die with a smile save for a voluntary organization giving a drop of kindness. Really?
Heath Infrastructure: Invest in health infrastructure including hospitals, clinics, healthcare workforce training to meet the needs of the public. Rotary clubs in Uganda have organized health camps but you can wonder the number of people who turn up for free medical services ranging from offers of Panadol to cancer screening and counseling!
Research and Innovation: Government should support medical research and innovations to stay up – to- date with the latest medical advancement.
Emergency preparedness: Develop robust emergency response systems to handle healthcare crisis effectively involving pandemic or natural diseases.
Public and Private collaboration: Foster collaboration between public and private healthcare providers to ensure comprehensive coverage and efficient service delivery. Government should regularly assess the health care sector’s performance , adapt policies as needed, and ensure that it remains responsive to the evolving healthcare needs of its population.
Uganda is faced with many healthcare challenges which include:
Limited access to healthcare services. Insufficient healthcare infrastructures, Shortage of health workers and those that we have are not valued, Limited health care facilitation.
Government should have a multifaceted approach involving investment, international support, community engagement, focus to both preventive and curative healthcare measures.
Recently a good friend of mine lost a battle with a heart related ailment which wasn’t known to her until three days prior to death! Had the Uganda Heart institute been well facilitated, her life would have been saved! But she had to be referred to India where she died on arrival! We are all victims of this situation because our healthcare is neglected. Our leaders should wake up to rescue the situation.
Rotary International has a program known as Gift of Life International which I chaired for some years. This gave me an opportunity to work closely with the UHI and I realized that our doctors are highly skilled but lack medical equipment and good facilitation to have a conducive environment to perform. Every time they table their requests to Government they are banished! What a pity! Rotary has offered a drop of kindness to thousands of children in need of open-heart surgery to India, South Africa and America among others without any single Government financial support apart from issuing of passports to patients and a caretaker which are also paid for by the recipients who mostly hail from humble families. These surgeries can be locally done if the Government becomes pro medical sector and listens to this outcry.
Recently social media was trending with a clip showing patients at Mulago hospital stranded with a dead body without any help from the staff. This body was just covered and left hopping relatives would surface to facilitate its removal from ward to mortuary. What a professional decadence!
We have a big challenge with our leaders who instead of serving the general public, are busy looking for handouts, monthly salaries, sitting allowances and how to strategize wining the next elections. People have died left right and center without any help! Oh Uganda, May God Uphold Thee we lay our future in thy hands! James Galabuzi Mukasa can be reached via [email protected]. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [whatsapp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at [email protected]).
