Local medics cannot operate high-tech equipment

By Innocent Anguyo

KAMPALA - Uganda’s public health sector lacks personnel to operate and maintain expensively procured medical equipment, revealed the minister of state for health and general duties.

For that reason, Dr. Eliod Tumwesigye said, government incurs high costs to hire expatriates to maintain the high-tech medical equipment.

The minister said this while presiding over as chief guest at the graduation of medical students at Nsambya Training School in Kampala on Friday.

He pointed to the absence of local biomedical engineers who have the knowledge on how to smartly operate and maintain modern medical equipment. As such, government is left with no choice but to bring in foreign experts to do the job.

That’s what happens whenever such machines breaks down, revealed Dr. Elioda.

“When some of our modern and expensive medical equipment get damaged, at times we are forced to hire expatriates from Belgium and Europe because our engineers do not know how to operate these equipment,” he said.

“Most of our staff had training in other modes of technology that have since become relatively obsolete [out-dated] given the rapid innovation today. We need to train our medical personnel on up-to-date technology.”

The minister further noted that Uganda is short of cold chain technicians, qualified medical dispensers, theatre assistants, aestheticians, public health nurses, midwives, biomedical engineers, radiographers, high quality nurses, among others.

“You go to health centres and find unqualified people dispensing drugs. We advertise for theatre assistants but never get any. Our vaccines even risk going bad because we don’t have cold chain technicians,” he complained.

Dr. Elioda urged medical schools in Uganda to start training more students in the aforementioned fields that lacked qualified personnel, saying the inadequacy of medical personnel is constraining the ability of government to deliver high quality medical care.

According to Stella Josephine Namatovu, the principal of Nsambya Training School, 275 medical personnel graduated from the school this year. 116 of the graduates were nurses, 91 were midwives, and 67 were laboratory assistants/technicians.

The principal however noted the school had inadequate staff, inadequate infrastructure and escalating domestic costs. Subsequently, she asked the ministry of health and the general public to help the school construct an administrative block, establish a biogas energy source and train more tutors.

Rev. Fr. Godfried Mulisa, the main celebrant of the mass held on the graduation day warned nurses against stealing drugs.

His argument was clear – that corruption in the health sector today largely manifested itself in form of theft of drugs.

“Be honest and put people, especially the underprivileged ones, at the centre of your service. Don’t do anything without putting God first because you will be doing his will of healing the sick,” advised the cleric.

“It is not enough to say I am a health practitioner. Demonstrate that you’re a health expert by action not words. It is wrong to gossip and take tea when patients are in long queues,’’ he added.

Dr. Martin Nsubuga, the medical director urged the school to devise means of producing graduates to meet the current needs of clients by introducing modules such as counseling, customer care, love, clear and empathetic communication, and interpersonal bonding.