Nursing aids managing health centres
Mar 31, 2009
Institutions that train health workers have blamed the high infant and maternal mortality rate on the health ministry’s decision to have health centres manned by nursing assistants.
By Anthony Bugembe
Institutions that train health workers have blamed the high infant and maternal mortality rate on the health ministry’s decision to have health centres manned by nursing assistants.
“Since 2006, the Nursing Council barred qualified nurses from registration,†reads a March 2009 letter to President Yoweri Museveni.
The letter from the Association of Principals of Health Institutions in Uganda followed a Cabinet decision to relocate health training institutions from the education to the health ministry.
The institutions were transferred in 1998 following a recommendation from the World Bank.
The transfer was followed by bickering between the two ministries.
On January 19, the President directed the Cabinet to resolve the anomaly.
“When the institutions were transferred, the health ministry trained nursing assistants,†the letter said.
It added that the rise in maternal and infant mortality and barring professional nurses from registration were deliberate to cause concern that the education ministry had failed to manage the institutions.
Health minister Dr. Stephen Mallinga said there was no way poorly trained nurses could be allowed to practice.
Institutions that train health workers have blamed the high infant and maternal mortality rate on the health ministry’s decision to have health centres manned by nursing assistants.
“Since 2006, the Nursing Council barred qualified nurses from registration,†reads a March 2009 letter to President Yoweri Museveni.
The letter from the Association of Principals of Health Institutions in Uganda followed a Cabinet decision to relocate health training institutions from the education to the health ministry.
The institutions were transferred in 1998 following a recommendation from the World Bank.
The transfer was followed by bickering between the two ministries.
On January 19, the President directed the Cabinet to resolve the anomaly.
“When the institutions were transferred, the health ministry trained nursing assistants,†the letter said.
It added that the rise in maternal and infant mortality and barring professional nurses from registration were deliberate to cause concern that the education ministry had failed to manage the institutions.
Health minister Dr. Stephen Mallinga said there was no way poorly trained nurses could be allowed to practice.