Anyone with maintenance plan for chic new women’s hospital?

I think when in your mid-40s, you can declare you have earned the right to say: I have been around long enough. Your parents may not agree, but… that is how parents are — even when you turn 70 and they happen to still be breathing, they will think you an inexperienced chap.
Okay, I will return to this age thing in a moment.
For now, I should salute the government for actually using borrowed money wisely to deliver the spanking new Mulago Specialised Maternal and Neonatal Hospital.

It is a referral facility gleaming with modern gizmos that cost about $8 million. The gadgets, according to media reports include in-built pipes to “enable medical gases, nitrous oxide and oxygen to be pumped directly to patients on their beds without using an oxygen cylinder”.

Part of the larger Mulago Complex, the hospital will offer a range of services: antenatal care for high-risk cases; delivery and postnatal care; uro-gynaecological treatment especially obstetric fistula; and IVF. It also comes with a pharmacy, blood bank, operation theatres and an intensive care unit. Basically, this healthcare facility is a very big deal.

But then comes the tricky part, given the inglorious history of public entities in Uganda that many have commented upon since the contractor handed the building to the government. I wish to pile on too. I have been around long enough to see facilities like Kiruddu hospital float in sewage in record time. I have been around long enough to wish for a firing squad killing for some people even if I am opposed to killing of any type.
In other words, I have been around long enough to worry about that Mulago facility.

How long will it take before the first machine breaks down and is not repaired for months, then the second, then the third? How long will it take before the toilets stop flushing, the lifts stop working? How long before the sundries run out and it takes forever to restock? How long before we hear that the standby generators are broken down or do not have fuel, or that the oxygen pipes are transporting, eh, well, hot air.

How long will it take before stories of underfunding surface, before we hear that valued Expert X and valued Expert Y has packed up and left for Botswana in frustration because of poor pay, poor or non-maintenance of equipment and building, bureaucratic procurement methods, and so on and so on?

One expert has said on some social media forum that this new facility, and much else that has gone into the refurbishment of the rest of the Mulago Complex, was well thought through in terms of equipment to use and personnel and workflow. That just about anyone who needed to be consulted was consulted.

Good, now the practice. The Ministry of Health and Mulago hospital need to publish a comprehensive operation and maintenance plan and how it is going to be funded. We as the public who will use the hospital, and more importantly pay back the loan to the Islamic Development Bank, need to know actual plans to ensure the hospital runs smoothly neera, neera.

It is a good first step that the public will pay some money to be treated there. It will not be enough to cover everything. The rest, or much of the rest of the money, will come from the government. Does the government commit to ensuring that the hospital budget is fully met and money is released on time?

It is in the NRM government’s self-interest to ensure the efficiency of sectors such as education, health and agriculture that have a near daily impact on wananchi. People do really care about their health, their families and their wealth. Fix those comprehensively and you won’t feel heat from “people power”. People need to see and feel the impact of positive service delivery.

Of the many things that annoy a common Uganda, rushing to a health facility for treatment and finding no relevant essential medicines, or finding an absentee doctor or nurse, ranks right up there. May the new hospital break the pattern.

Bernard Tabaire is a media trainer and commentator on public affairs based in Kampala.
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Twitter:@btabaire