2 medics interdicted over absenteeism

The Wakiso District Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Mr Alfred Malinga, has interdicted two heads of health facilities in the district over absenteeism.

The officers-in-charge of Wakiso Health Centre IV and Namayumba Health Centre were interdicted on September 7.

Mr Malinga said his action followed a report from the Ministry of Health, which blamed Wakiso District for poor service delivery and making a number of unnecessary referrals to hospitals in Kampala City.  

“In the previous fiscal year (2022/2023), Kawempe National Referral Hospital received 14,243 maternal referrals and 3,418 perinatal referrals. A total of 3,766 maternal referrals, making 26 percent, and 687 perinatal referrals, equating to 20 percent, were from Wakiso District,” he said on Wednesday.

The CAO also noted that during the same period, 123 maternal deaths were registered at Kawempe hospital. Of these, 43 (35 percent) were from Wakiso.

Last month, Dr Diana Atwine, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Health, directed Mr Malinga to convene an urgent meeting with all in-charges of health facilities over  the declining health service delivery in the district, which is partly blamed on the absenteeism of senior medics.

After scrutinising daily attendance records at various health facilities, Mr Malinga said they found out that one of the in-charges had only appeared at work for 13 days in the past three months while the other officer, also on interdiction, had not reported for duty since the beginning of September.

“We found out that one of the officers had someone writing for him in the attendance book. On average, in the past months, he was attending six or seven days in a month,” Mr Malinga said.

He added:“Before the end of this week,I am going to appoint new people who are going to replace them in acting capacity.”

Both senior medical officers will receive half-pay of their monthly salaries during the period of interdiction. Mr Malinga said he had also constituted a five-member committee to inquire into the state of poor service delivery, especially with respect to attendance.

The investigating team is headed by Mr Alfred Byamukama, the deputy CAO, Dr Mathias Lugoloobi, the acting district health officer (member), one of the principal education officers, and the district senior human resource officer. The team is expected to submit a report within two weeks.

“I have even instructed the district internal auditor to do a thorough audit of the two health facilities. I want to see how they have been spending taxpayers’ money when they are not in attendance,” Mr Malinga said.

Wakiso health
Wakiso controls 1,520 health units. 70 of these are government-owned and 38 are nonprofit agencies.

Others are licensed private pharmacies, drug shops, clinics or maternity homes.

A 2016 survey by the State House Health Monitoring Unit revealed that the district has a dysfunctional and broken-down healthcare system.

The survey report came out just days after President Museveni suspended 11 health workers at Nakawuka Health Centre III after residents complained that they were not doing their work as expected.