Prime
Arua health centres in sorry state
Doctors operate on a patient at Arua Regional Referral Hospital recently. A new report has found a breakdown of health services in the district, which district officials attribute to poor facilitation from the government. PHOTO BY CLEMENT ALUMA
What you need to know:
Medical challenges. An investigation team from State House found that most health centres in the district were substandard and were often extorting money from patients for tests and drugs.
The healthcare system in Arua District has been dragged into the mud, following a revelation of extortion, absenteeism of medical workers, drug shortage and delivery of unwanted drugs.
Dr Diana Atwiine, who led the Medicine and Health Service Delivery Monitoring Unit from State House, said the extortion was at its peak in some health centres.
“Patients are charged Shs5,000 for a diabetes test and Shs15,000 to access diabetes drugs. This is total extortion since people are poor,” Ms Atwiine said.
Part of the report also indicates that in Omugo Health Centre III, patients are charged Shs50,000 for ambulance yet the facility budgets for fuel.
For many years, the facilities had been faced with issues of expired drugs such as folic acids, contraceptives and ARVS packed in the same boxes with new drugs.
The senior nursing officer for Vurra and Upper Madi Okollo Hospital, Ms Linah Tindaru, said they are poorly facilitated and yet the money is not disbursed in time.
For the last three months, the hospital has not received BCG vaccines for new born babies and maternity wards are always littered with syringes.
She adds that lack of referral systems has resulted in government hospitals providing substandard treatment.
There were also reports that the district health officer, Dr Patrick Anguzu, had never visited some of the facilities for more than three years.
Dr Anguzu did not deny the claims, arguing that his office suffers from poor facilitation in terms of provision of fuel and vehicles.
The healthcare centres in the district are also dogged by underpaid staff, who have left in droves to join private hospitals since they offer more attractive salaries.
