Enforce right to privacy at health centre, say activists

Health activists under the Southern Region Social Rights Association (SRSRA) have asked authorities in Masaka to guarantee the privacy of patients at Kiyumba Health Centre IV in Nyendo-Mukungwe Municipality, Masaka City.

Men, women and children at the facility share the same ward, which officials at the facility blamed on lack of space.

However, in a recent interview with this publication, Mr Swaibu Makumbi Sulambaya, the chairperson of SRSRA, said allowing patients of different genders to share the same ward is an infringement on their right to privacy which is guaranteed in international legal instruments such as the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Constitution.

“The right to privacy is just one of the many human rights that every Ugandan should enjoy and what is happening at Kiyuma Health Centre should be stopped forthwith,” he said.

Mr Sulambaya urged the city authorities to mobilise funds to erect more wards at the facility or relocate inpatients to Masaka Regional Referral Hospital.

“Can you imagine, even the single ward which both women and men occupy lacks curtains to separate the male and female patients,” he said. 

Mr Dan Mugema, the Nyendo Mukungwe Division Councillor representing Bulayi Parish, said Kiyumba Health Centre IV has an average outpatient turnout of about 200 patients per day from 12 villages.

“Residents from Mpugwe, Kalangala, Bugabira, Mazinga, Bukeeri, Buwunga, among several other villages, seek medical services at the facility,” he said.

Mr Mugema said there is a possibility that disease transmission could be high. 

 “…patients suffering from different illnesses including contagious diseases are all squeezed into the same small ward. It is likely that some patients could contract other diseases because of the compromised space at the ward,” he said.

Mr Augustine Lubega, a counsellor at Kiyumba Health Centre IV, said on January 17, two patients shared the same bed while on drip.

“This situation is not very strange at Kiyumba health centre,” he said. 

Ms Lukiya Namutebi, a patient, said mothers have to go outside the ward to change clothes.

“A patient who cannot go to the lavatory finds it hard to use a basin in an open place where we have the male adults and children,” she said.

At the maternity ward, the patients said when the facility is full, expectant mothers are mixed with other patients with different illnesses.

“Our leaders should help the people who seek health services at this facility. We are likely to have different infections for the newly born and the mothers if we do not get help,” Ms Sulayina Nakku, an expectant mother, said.

Kiyumba Health Centre IV is 8kms away from Masaka Regional Referral Hospital.

City reacts

Dr Patrick Kasendwa, the officer-in-charge of Health Services in Masaka City, said they are aware of the challenges at Kiyumba Health Centre IV and plans are underway to address the problem.

“We want the facility to get a land title so that government can put up more structures. This has been a big challenge that we are currently addressing,” he said.

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