Health centres in Apac open for two hours
Waiting. Patients at Aganga Health Centre II in Apac District. The facility is rarely open. Photo by Bill Oketch
What you need to know:
- Challenges. The facilities also grapple with shortage of health personnel and drugs.
Apac. It is 1pm and patients at Wansolo Health Centre II in Akokoro Sub-county, Apac District, are already stranded because there is no health worker to attend to them.
The health centre, which serves the fishing community of about 5,000 people, operates for only two hours.
“When we come before 11am or after 1pm, we find it closed,” a 55-year-old woman says.
A report card conducted in May and June by Apac Anti-Corruption Coalition (TAACC), an NGO, found shortage of health personnel, drugs, supplies and staff accommodation, and absenteeism among the challenges facing Wansolo, Aganga and Atar health units.
Wansolo only has five personnel, including a health assistant, nurse, watchman, nursing assistant and a porter.
The report also found that the health centres’ out-patient departments are infested with bats and their structures are dilapidated.
Dr Mathew Emer, the district health officer, says Wansolo health unit is not coded by the Ministry of Health, as a result survives mainly on redistributed supplies and drugs from coded centres.
The scorecard recommended that outreach services for people living with HIV/Aids be considered at the facility due to high demand.
It also proposed that if the facility cannot be coded, health officials should ensure that the centre has enough drugs.
However, Dr Emer said the district sent a request to the ministry to have some of their facilities, including Wansolo coded.
Mr Denis Ojok, a health assistant at the centre, says most staff commute due to inadequate accommodation.
“Our officer-in-charge shares a house with two other staff,” he says.
Aganga Health Centre in Ibuje Sub-county also grapples with the same problem.
Staff ride bicycles for up to 7kms to provide outreach services or sometimes use their own resources to conduct immunisation campaigns.
Atar has one pit-latrine block which is in a sorry state.
The waiting space for the facility’s outpatient department is too small to accommodate all the patients.
Patients say health workers come late and the facility is often closed by midday.
Response
Mr Tonny Jasper Odongo, the secretary for health and education, blamed the problems on some local leaders whom he accused of intimidating health workers. He said there would be effective and efficient service delivery if all key stakeholders played their roles.
