Some health officials are born thieves - minister

BUSHENYI- The Minister of Health, Dr Elioda Tumwesigye, has said the poor state of service provision in government hospitals largely depends on the management system of different health units.

He added that some health officials are naturally born thieves and have no mercy for the patients’ drugs when posted in health facilities, most especially in government ones.

“Stealing of government drugs doesn’t begin when these people start working. The way they were brought up matters. We have children who steal neighbour’s goats at their younger stages. What do you think they will do when they grow old and they are employed in such government hospitals where there are free drugs?”asked the minister.

He attributed the current poor conditions in government health facilities to lack of enough resources to satisfy all Ugandans at their point of need.

He said the money to buy everything has not been available in different hospitals and health centres across the country.

“As government, we are working...to see that all health centres and hospitals improve to provide quality services to the clients,” said Dr Tumwesigye.

Dr Tumwesigye was responding to questions raised by relatives during the burial of the late Valleria Mbahita Rwacumika, the mother of Dr Kihura Nkuba, a renowned Pan-Africanist. She was buried in Kigoma, Ishaka Bushenyi district last week.

The relatives had tasked Dr Tumwesigye, to explain the poor services at Mulago National Referral Hospital. This was during the burial of Mbahita in Kigoma, Ishaka Bushenyi district.
Speaking to mourners, Ms Nalongo Rwacumika, the daughter of Mbahita daughter, said while nursing their grandmother at Mulago, they were asked to buy drugs from the clinics outside the hospital by the doctors, who she said, own those clinics.

“The minister is here. he should explain to us why this is happening at our National Referral Hospital Mulago. We were tasked to buy drugs expensively from private clinics outside Mulago by doctors who own these clinics. Those are the people who steal our medicine and sell it back to us from their clinics,” she charged.

Speaking to the mourners, Mr Gafa Rwacumika, a grandson of the deceased, said the situation in government hospitals is deteriorating and patients who throng the facilities for medical attention are not helped.

“These health workers are not helping us for sure. This would force me to say government should employ the army to help us in these hospitals. I visited Mubende barracks hospital and found the army doing well like the way they are doing in operational wealth creation.

I ask the minister here to explain more on the current status of hospitals,” he said.

Eulogising his late mother, Dr Kihura Nkuba, said Mbahita made good use of African traditional knowledge of medicinal herbs to treat many diseases and never used to visit hospitals for medical attention.

“Being an old woman, my mum hated going to hospitals and that’s what made her live up to 104 years because she believed that there is no cure in hospitals. She refused being taken to the hospital the time she broke her leg saying that traditional bone setters would be better,” said Dr Kihura Nkuba.

He praised his mother for living a pure African woman lifestyle, which made her shun many foodstuffs like sugar.

The deceased passed on at 104 years at Mulago hospital on August 8, where she had spent five months receiving treatment after breaking her femur as she chased cattle that had invaded her home.

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