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KASESE - Outrage has dominated a meeting between Kasese district leadership and Members of Parliament on the assurance and implementation committee over severe understaffing at Kilembe Mines Hospital.

The April 3, 2024, meeting at the hospital in the municipality’s Bulembia division, was between the hospital staff, the municipality technocrats, some community members and the district political wing.

It was revealed at the meeting that the municipality administration withdrew some health workers from the hospital, leaving skeleton staff.

It was further revealed that the withdrawn health workers had since been redeployed to other health facilities in the municipality.

From 82 to 14 staff

Dr. Bernard Balyana, the medical superintendent, said the hospital, which formerly had 82 workers, was being run by only 14 following the recent withdrawal of 68 from the 73-year-old facility.

“Eight of the remaining 14 are medical while the rest are non-medical,” Balyana said.
Balyana also reported that the health facility was no longer receiving funds and medical supplies from the Government. 

Policy issue

Kasese municipality deputy town clerk Zedekiya Kambasu Kayiri said the municipal authorities had been forced to transfer and re-deploy the 68 staff to the cost centres as guided by the Government.

“There is a reform in the government public service that all government employees will be paid according to what has been designated, gazetted and listed as cost centres,” Kayiri said.

He clarified that Kilembe Mines Hospital was not among the listed cost centres, “meaning that a worker left there will go without a salary".

Legislators irked  

Kayiri’s explanation vexed Municipality Member of Parliament Ferigo Kambale, who shot at the area administration.

Kambale accused the municipal technical staff of allegedly failing to co-operate with the political leaders.

“In our internal meetings we have agreed that he (town clerk) can silently attach these workers to cost centres but they remain working here (Kilembe) for the purposes of assisting our people but that is not what the administration has done,” Kambale charged.

Committee member Sylivia Bahireira (Kamwenge District Woman) described the deactivation of the health facility as “suicidal to the people of Kasese,” especially those living in the mountainous areas.

“We are wondering how the Ministry of Health can make such a dangerous decision,” she said.

She wondered how the technocrats can close a health facility when Uganda is working towards attaining health for all by 2030 in line with the third goal of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Moses Acrobat Kiiza (Bughendera County) said there was no reason for Kilembe Mines Hospital to be closed.

He described the hospital as a referral facility for the people living in at least eight districts in the Rwenzori region.

“People are transferred from all the nine districts of this region and beyond. I am in agony. This is too bad. I want to pledge to you we are going to make a follow-up of this issue,” he said.

Established in 1951 to serve the staff working in the Kilembe copper mines, the hospital extended its services to the Kilembe community and the wider Rwenzori.

Florence Kabugho (Kasese woman) said she was worried for residents of the mountainous areas, especially expectant mothers, who find it hard to access health services.

“You can imagine a pregnant woman being carried on a stretcher for 17km from deep the mountains and then you tell her there is not service here,” Kabugho, who is also a member of the Committee, said.

Fate of sh2b unknown

Kasese district Chairperson Eliphaz Muhindi Bukombi  told the committee that a new site that was inspected by the Government to host an alternative to Kilembe Mines Hospital had never been realised.

The fund, according to health minister Dr Jane Ruth Acheng, was meant to upgrade of Rukoki Health Centre IV in Kasese municipality to a general hospital. 

“To address the service delivery gap, the Ministry of Health is upgrading Rukoki Health Centre IV to a General Hospital,” Aceng said in a letter dated February last year.

The minister added that there were “plans to construct a health Centre III in Bulembia Division to increase access to primary healthcare to the population of the catchment of Kilembe Mines Hospital.

“We were told that the central government had earmarked shillings two billion for the construction of an alternative health facility but the money has never been seen,” Muhindi said.

He added: “We are still waiting for a communication about the shillings two billion".
He called for urgent intervention, noting that the district's population, soaring to almost one million requires even more health facilities.

Responding to the concerns, committee chairperson Joyce Bagala assured the population of Kasese that they would advocate for the reactivation of Kilembe Mines Hospital.
“Our work is to ensure that the citizens receive quality services from the Government,” she said.

Ailing

Kilembe Mines Hospital currently operates in a new temporary site after the main facility was destroyed when floods hit the facility on May 1, 2013, May 5, 2014, May 7 and May 10 2020. 

The health facility had been in operation under the tripartite management of Kasese Catholic Diocese, Kilembe Mines Copper Ltd, and the Government.

The healthcare services were relocated to Mt St Michael Day Care and Nursery, the premises of the Catholic Diocese.

However following the breakdown of the tripartite, the facility shifted the equipment in 2022 to new buildings opposite the old but now dilapidated hospital campus.