Government worried over forgery of medical results
Graduates jubilate after being awarded diplomas and certificates in nursing, midwifery at Lacor School of Nursing and Midwifery in Gulu Town on Friday. PHOTO BY STEPHEN OKELLO
Gulu- The Ministry of Health has warned about the rampant issuance of fake and manipulated medical results by health workers after receiving bribes.
Others issue wrong diagnosis, forcing patients to pay heavily for unnecessary drugs.
Mr Michael Mubiru Kayizzi, the quality assurance manager at the Allied Health Professional Council, made the remarks at the graduation ceremony of nurses and midwives at St Mary’s Hospital, Lacor in Gulu Town at the weekend.
According to Mr Mubiru, quack medical professionals continue to infiltrate the laboratory technology world where they are bribed and compromised by patients to declare results that are contrary to their findings.
“We have had several cases at our disposal where a medical worker walks a patient into the laboratory, draws samples and carries out tests but ends up issuing results that do not correspond with what they found because they have been bribed,” Mr Mubiru said.
He said HIV/Aids, brucellosis, typhoid and malaria top the list of diseases whose results continue to be forged with a view to extorting bribes from patients.
Mr Mubiru said some people bribe health workers to be issued with results declaring they are HIV negative even when they are positive in order to be cleared for marriage.
“This must be a warning to our health workers across the country to desist from such practices since they compromise the health of Ugandans. Some have paid heavily for wrong diagnosis or got infected innocently,” he added.
Mr Mubiru revealed that the Health ministry has embarked on registering all medical laboratories in the country (government and private-owned) to help track those without standard equipment.
During an interview with Daily Monitor on Saturday, Mr Anthony Banya, the regional Allied Health supervisor, said: “Although many people fear to report, we receive a lot of complaints, which we instantly act upon, and we have fired very many health workers and caused the arrest of several in Acholi sub-region,” he said.
Faulty lab machines
Mr Banya, who declined to give names, said they discovered that several private health facilities were conducting laboratory tests on patients using faulty machines.
“Besides government banning widal tests for typhoid, it is what these private facilities insist on because averagely, all results come out positive and you are enrolled on its expensive medication even when you are not infected,” he said.
More than 130 graduated with diplomas and certificates in nursing, midwifery and laboratory technology courses at Lacor Hospital School of Health Sciences.
