Govt withdraws workers from private health units

However, during the last financial year, Kasese District Local Government embarked on a move to withdraw some of its staff from PNFP medical facilities to bridge the human resource deficit in public health facilities.

According to the health department, the district has a staffing level of 79 percent, way below the minimum requirement of 90 percent by the Ministry of Health.

The health workers withdrawn from these facilities include health assistants, midwives, medical officers, paediatricians, gynaecologists and nurses.

The Acting Kasese District Health Officer, Mr Stephen Bagonza, said the chief planner in the ministry of Health recommended the decision regarding PNFP facilities.

“When we were attending a planning meeting in 2021, the chief planner in the Ministry of Health said our staffing levels were low because we had maintained staff in PNFP facilities; he recommended that we withdraw them with immediate effect, arguing that the Ministry of Health had issued a directive to that effect in 2018,” Mr Bagonza said.

He also said the district opted to withdraw the health workers in a phased manner since the health units play a vital role, especially in places where there are no public health units.

 “Look at Buhaghura Health Centre II in Rukoki; if we withdrew all our staff, the health unit would remain with only one support staff who is paid by the Church. The same was the case with Rwesande Health Centre IV where we withdrew only one doctor out of the two we had deployed there,” he said.

Affected facilities react

The some of the affected PNFPs said the decision has had its toll on their operations.

Rwenzori Mountaineering Services-RMS Health Centre III in Ibanda-Kyanya Town Council said it has suffered the brunt of the decision. The health centre was founded by Rwenzori Mountaineering Services-RMS to enhance access to quality health care among residents of Ibanda-Kyanya valley. RMS is a community-based organisation promoting tourism and mountain hiking on the Rwenzori Mountains.

The RMS chief executive officer, Mr Benon Isuka, said all the four health workers on the government payroll, including the unit in-charge, were withdrawn, nearly bringing operations at the health facility to a stand-still.

“In May this year, the district withdrew a senior clinical officer who was in charge, a nursing officer, a midwife and a laboratory assistant. These were vital positions in the normal functioning of the facility. We went into a panic mode and tried to refill them; although because of a small resource envelope, we only filled three,” he said.

According to Isuka, much as the three professionals have also been hired by the organisation, they are not well remunerated because the facility charges very little money since it is a non-profit making health unit.

At Kasanga PHC in Mpondwe-Lhubiriha Town Council, the facility had five health workers on the government payroll, four of whom have since been withdrawn. The facility was founded by the Catholic Diocese of Kasese.

According to Sr Restituta Katusabe, the administrator at the facility,  Kasanga PHC serves residents and travellers at Mpondwe-Lhubiriha Town Council and the entire Bukonzo County West before they are referred to Bwera General Hospital.

“We were heavily affected by that withdrawal because the workload for our remaining staff increased. They have to work double shifts to attend to the overwhelming numbers since we donot have money to recruit new staff,” Sr Katusabe said.

According to the South Rwenzori Diocesan Health Department assessment report released on September 28, the government had seconded 130 health workers in health facilities founded by the Anglican diocese as on May 30, 2022.

The report indicates that as of September this year, at least 37 of them including two specialists from Kagando Hospital and another from St Paul’s Hospital had been withdrawn.

In the report, Rt Rev Nason Baluku, the bishop of South Rwenzori Diocese, said the diocese doesn’t have enough resources to replace all the 37 staff yet it seems clear that the government remains committed to withdrawing even the remaining staff.

Bishop Baluku added: “We request a revisit of the directive so as to retain the number of government-seconded health workers in our facilities. For effective supervision and monitoring, we ask that government considers giving monthly human resource delegated grants to support the church-founded facilities to recruit more staff,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ms Grace Kwizera, a resident of Karusandara Sub-county, said the withdrawal of some health workers from Kanamba Health Centre III has resulted in several patients trekking for about five kilometres to access medical care at Karusandara Health Centre III.

Ms Kwizera said Kanamba Health Centre III had a hard-working midwife, and added that her transfer will be a setback for maternal health.

Some of the withdrawn health workers in Kasese