LUWERO: The Luwero District Health Officer (DHO), Dr Innocent Nkonwa, has expressed concern that a section of health workers at Luwero hospital, the district’s main health facility, are fighting the reopening of the private wing.
The private wing at Luwero hospital was opened months after the facility was elevated from a Health Center 4 to a hospital status in the fiscal year 2019/2020.
But in May 2021, the Dictrict Council passed a resolution suspending the operations of the private wing due to complaints that staff were neglecting the non-paying patients and only attending to the paying ones in the private wing.
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Dithan Kikabi, the then district speaker, also said that the money which was being collected at the private wing had remained unaccounted for, something which raised more suspicion that this was intended to selfishly benefit the health workers who manned it.
But patients started complaining about the medics’ becoming extortionists, to the extent of causing death. Two cases of mothers dying in labor, allegedly due to medics’ extortionist malpractices, stood out.
The first case was on January 15, 2022, when Specioza Nabasinga, 36, a resident of Kakabala village in Butuntumula Sub County, died at Luwero hospital. Her family claimed that she died because of their failure to raise the 200,000 shillings demanded by the doctor to operate on her. The second was on Friday, February 25, 2022, when Susan Nanfuma, 30, checked in at Luwero hospital with labour pains. However, doctors pronounced her dead at around 10 pm on Saturday night after delivery through a C-section.
The deceased’s husband, Vincent Mugerwa, said when his wife checked in at the hospital, a doctor asked for 300,000 schillings to conduct a C-section on her. Mugerwa said that although he was against paying the money because they were at a government hospital and supposed to get free services, he gave in due to desperation. He explained that at around 9:30 pm, doctors asked him to look around for the blood because their patient needed it after the operation.
Mugerwa said that he rushed to Bishop Ceaser Asili Memorial hospital, which is about half a kilometre away, where he received a phone call informing him that his wife had died.
The public outcry saw the district council, which convened at Africa Guest House in Luwero town council on Friday, May 7, 2021, resolve to suspend the operations of the private wing with immediate effect, saying it had contributed to extortion of money from patients.
Ronald Ndawula, the then district LC V chairman, said that he had received numerous complaints from residents that those without money couldn’t access services, yet the facility was primarily a public hospital meant to offer free services. Ndawula emphasised that the hospital’s elevation was done to allow poor patients to access better services at no cost, not for profit.
As district authorities continue to conduct a study to determine the resumption of this private wing with transparency in its operations, Dr. Nkonwa has said that some health workers are covertly fighting the move.
According to Dr. Nkonwa, those behind this fight are the extortive medics who have for months been profiting from illicitly charging patients at the hospital meant to offer free services.
Luwero district LC V chairman Erastus Kibirango shares a related experience. According to Kibirango, he recently met several workers at Luwero hospital and asked them if they wanted the private wing reinstated. He says the response was lacking when only about three replied that it should be reopened.
Kibirango says the issue of the private wing is still a big challenge because most workers are seemingly not ready to embrace it, that they can’t even own it, something that can still see its services be the same as those that prompted its suspension.
Asked by URN about Dr Nkonwa’s claim that some medics are fighting the reopening of the private wing, no health worker was willing to say a word.
Lately, Luwero hospital is grappling with a staff shortage with only 140 health workers, less by 50 because at its level it’s supposed to have 190, according to Dr. Steven Magera, the Medical Superintendent.
He adds that the facility is also overwhelmed by patient numbers, especially the expectant mothers, saying that now annually, it attends to more than 700 people who deliver from there, yet its capacity is at 270 given the need to expand the maternity ward.
The patients are drawn from, among other areas, Luwero, Nakaseke, and Nakasongola districts. Luwero hospital operates a primary health care budget worth 334 million shillings.
The facility attracts over 250 patients per day and handles 300 deliveries per month.
