Mbale Hospital incident points to a larger systemic problem

Sep 29, 2011

EDITOR: Recently, four doctors and two nurses of Mbale Hospital were arrested for alleged neglect of a woman in labour who died at the hospital.

EDITOR: Recently, four doctors and two nurses of Mbale Hospital were arrested for alleged neglect of a woman in labour who died at the hospital.

There are not many people in Uganda who want to see maternal mortality decrease more than I do. I am a Canadian obstetrician who has left a very lucrative job at home to work in Uganda to help Ugandans save their mothers.

Now in my seventh year here, I am shocked that health workers who often do not have equipment, medicine and blood when needed are now treated like common criminals when a mother dies of a pregnancy complication.

Punishing under-resourced health workers is not the way to save Ugandan mothers. Rather, the solution is to review each maternal death to determine its exact cause.

The truth is that without the needed tools, even the most skilled obstetrician in the world cannot save a dying mother. And the health workers in Mbale did not have the tools they needed!

We certainly do not send troops into combat with water guns and expect them to effectively carry out their orders and stay in the fight. So the situation in Mbale is a larger systemic problem, not the sole fault of any health worker.

Of course, if a review finds health workers have made significant mistakes, they should be disciplined professionally. But throwing workers in jail is not the solution.

Equip the hospitals with the essential tools and medicine, and treat health workers with respect. Countries that do this will save their mothers.
Dr Jean Chamberlain Froese
Executive director-Save the Mothers
Uganda Christian University Mukono

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