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Govt issues new rules to curb absenteeism, low output by doctors
Doctors attend to Frank Kasaija, a patient at Mulago National Referral Hospital, on August 15. PHOTO/ ISAAC KASAMANI
What you need to know:
- Government is preparing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) where each staff will be rated by their supervisors against their key outputs quarterly.
The Ministry of Health has written to directors of public hospitals asking them to submit, within seven days, reports showing clear output of each medical officer, specialist and consultant in the facilities.
Dr Henry Mwebesa, the Director General of Health Services, wrote the letter on Tuesday, the day Daily Monitor published a story about absenteeism of health workers, which has persisted despite huge salary increments recently.
“Going forward,” Dr Mwebesa wrote, “I would like to receive outputs of your medical officers, specialists, consultants and senior consultants for the month of September 2023, within seven days from the date of this letter.”
“Subsequently, I will require such reports from you by the 14th of each subsequent month. Specifically, the data should indicate ward rounds and major procedures done monthly by the said officers,” he added.
Background
In the story published on Tuesday, Daily Monitor reported that some consultants are working for only eight days and yet getting their full monthly salary, which was enhanced from Shs6 million to Shs12 million.
According to information from the Health ministry, the unauthorised public sector absenteeism rate is 11 percent and authorised absenteeism is 38 percent, bringing that average to 50 percent. In his letter, Dr Mwebesa said the move by the ministry is informed by findings from their recent tour of the facilities.
“Ministry of Health top management has been conducting supervision visits across a number of districts and regional referral hospitals. Among some of the notable issues was that there was no evidence of outputs of some of the doctors and specialists in our hospitals,” he wrote.
“For example, supervision teams could review the theatre books and find no evidence that certain doctors, including consultants and senior consultants, had done any surgeries in the hospital for months or if they did, they were very few to warrant their usefulness in the hospital. Likewise, a review of ward reports showed no evidence that some doctors and specialists had participated in ward rounds for a long time,” he added.
Dr Mwebesa revealed in the same letter that the ministry is preparing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) where each staff will be rated by their supervisors against their key outputs quarterly.
“The KPIs will be disseminated to you by next month. You will recall I recently shared with you a template of monitoring outputs of doctors in Mubende hospital currently employed by the director, Dr Emmanuel Batibwa. I requested all hospital directors to emulate the same practice,” he added.
