About language used in health facilities by our doctors, nurses

I appreciate the great work being done by our medical doctors. In fact, many of us would not be alive without the efforts of these great people. However, the language Ugandan doctors are using especially in public health facilities is worrying.

For the last two weeks, I have been escorting some patients to a certain referral hospital. To be brief, there is one patient who was admitted due to kidney issues. The man had no biological child although he was married. His wife was attending to him but then a certain doctor came around and asked for the whereabouts of the children. With great sadness, the man replied that he had never fathered a child in his life. The doctor seriously mocked him but the man said that it is a result of a medical condition. The doctor insisted that with modern technology he should have had children.

In the process, the patient broke down. Now the question is: Why would a doctor insist on asking a patient about the children? Is it criminal for one not to have children while being bedridden? As we ponder on the possible answer, the story ended with the immediate death of the patient who was buried in Ibanda Town Council on January 11, 2025.

Another experience was January 10 2025 when I escorted someone for the treatment of her son. The mother was told to go to the laboratory for examination of certain conditions. As the laboratory attendant was drawing a blood sample, he asked the 44-year-old lady whether she was the grandmother of a patient. The lady said that she was the mother. To my surprise, the laboratory attendant seriously disagreed. My concern was: Why would the laboratory attendant in the first place ask whether the lady is the grandmother of the patient? What was the motive and what is the ethical justification for such a question?

This scenario reminded me of a terrible experience I faced while attending to my late father at the same health facility. My father was referred to this facility for surgical management of his stomach. The facility admitted him and I was advised to carry out a number of examinations as we waited for the surgical operation. In addition, I was also told to buy some costly drugs on a daily basis including albumin. I tried my level best to follow the above advice so as to save the life of the old man. Unfortunately, he was not worked on. His stay at the facility was prolonged in the guise of trying to normalise him before the surgical operation. In the process, his condition deteriorated. When I approached a certain doctor working on him about it, he told me that the man was too old to live. Whereas he could have had a medical ground to argue that way, he sounded like he had a negative attitude towards aged persons and therefore it made me suspect his ill motives. My father died a day before my interaction with this doctor.

The questions are: What could be motivating health professionals to use such a language? Could such a language have the potential to contribute to the deteriorating conditions of our patients or even drive them to other alternatives? How about the implication on the self-esteem of patients and attendants? These and many more questions create serious worry about Uganda’s health sector and therefore need urgent attention from stakeholders.

Dr Nixon Wamamela, Lecturer at Makerere University Department of Philosophy [email protected]