Human resource challenges hurting health sector
Sep 21, 2011
A poor human resource system is eating away the health sector. Effective functioning of any organisation requires a functional human resource system.
By Judith B. Kayonga
A poor human resource system is eating away the health sector. Effective functioning of any organisation requires a functional human resource system.
There are many human resource issues that medicines and health services delivery monitoring unit (MHSDMU) has unearthed in Uganda’s health sector. For instance, lack of proper promotion system.
Career development and on-the-job training for medics and their support personnel is very important for the continuity and proper update of medical services in the country. There is lack of accommodation and allowances for those in the hard-to-reach places.
Even those in Kampala, accommodation is on the high end, so people opt for deep down in the city outskirts for affordable accommodation.
There is no lunch allowances and yet these health workers are expected to remain on duty even during lunch hours. This is not to mention pay roll issues such as delayed salaries and inadequate salaries; their proposed pay rise are at cabinet level.
If all these issues are left unresolved, they tend to cause a lot of contention among health workers, hence resulting into a demotivated medical industry that will be prone to malpractices.
These anomalies need to be corrected for effective operations. There is need to first establish working human resource systems to manage and solve employee issues such as appointment letters for all its employees, payroll problems, hard-to-reach allowance and accommodation issues.
It is only then that we can hold them responsible for failure to deliver on the job.
A demotivated work force crumbles the system. However, the Government has improved on service delivery, especially in terms of medicine delivery at health centres, district referral and national referral hospitals and has provided free medical services to the public in all the Government health centres and hospitals.
Many people don’t seem to comprehend the importance of a functioning human resource system in an organization, but it is actually the core of any successful organization. It is, therefore, our call to the ministries of public service and that of health to work together to solve these human resource issues, otherwise I foresee a staggering loss of health workers to other countries for greener pastures.
The writer works with medicines and health services delivery monitoring unit
A poor human resource system is eating away the health sector. Effective functioning of any organisation requires a functional human resource system.
There are many human resource issues that medicines and health services delivery monitoring unit (MHSDMU) has unearthed in Uganda’s health sector. For instance, lack of proper promotion system.
Career development and on-the-job training for medics and their support personnel is very important for the continuity and proper update of medical services in the country. There is lack of accommodation and allowances for those in the hard-to-reach places.
Even those in Kampala, accommodation is on the high end, so people opt for deep down in the city outskirts for affordable accommodation.
There is no lunch allowances and yet these health workers are expected to remain on duty even during lunch hours. This is not to mention pay roll issues such as delayed salaries and inadequate salaries; their proposed pay rise are at cabinet level.
If all these issues are left unresolved, they tend to cause a lot of contention among health workers, hence resulting into a demotivated medical industry that will be prone to malpractices.
These anomalies need to be corrected for effective operations. There is need to first establish working human resource systems to manage and solve employee issues such as appointment letters for all its employees, payroll problems, hard-to-reach allowance and accommodation issues.
It is only then that we can hold them responsible for failure to deliver on the job.
A demotivated work force crumbles the system. However, the Government has improved on service delivery, especially in terms of medicine delivery at health centres, district referral and national referral hospitals and has provided free medical services to the public in all the Government health centres and hospitals.
Many people don’t seem to comprehend the importance of a functioning human resource system in an organization, but it is actually the core of any successful organization. It is, therefore, our call to the ministries of public service and that of health to work together to solve these human resource issues, otherwise I foresee a staggering loss of health workers to other countries for greener pastures.
The writer works with medicines and health services delivery monitoring unit