Butaleja boss faults health ministry on resource misallocation

Aug 02, 2018

'The health ministry should focus on priorities in order to do better and give better accountability'

PIC: Waya speaking during the national social accountability dialogue at Hotel Africana in Kampala on Tuesday. (Credit: Alex Muhumuza)

 

SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY

Richard Waya, the chairman LC5 Butaleja, faulted the ministry of health for the misallocation of resources, which he says has hindered health service delivery.

Waya called for the improvement on the relationship between ministry of health with the local governments and citizens in order to know their needs on ground.

"We are in need of beds, mattresses and incubators, but the Government pours coartem to us, we need to work together with the Government," says Waya.

Waya expressed his concern during the national social accountability dialogue organised by World Vision Uganda in partnership with ministry of health with support from Korean International Co-operation Agency (KOICA), on Tuesday August 1,  at Hotel Africana in Kampala.

The dialogue was aimed at bringing together state and non-state actors, to dialogue and deliberate about scaling up social accountability across the social services spectrum through citizens' voice and action model in service delivery.

Milly Mugeni, the Butaleja Woman MP, applauded World Vision and KOICA for working together with district leaders in sensitising the citizens and educating them about their health rights.  

 Mugeni said the ministry should focus on priorities in order to do better and give better accountability.

Citing out Butaleja Hospital, Mugeni said the hospital has been in the rehabilitation plan in the last five years, but up to now it has never been rehabilitated.

She added that lack of drugs in hospitals hampers service delivery in the health sector.

"When doing our monitoring  role, we find out that  there is drug stock out and we keep on throwing blame, even if you ask the  committees, you will never get a clear explanation," says Mugeni.

PIC: Mugeni says lack of drugs in hospitals hampers service delivery in the health sector


Moses Watasa, the commissioner in charge of information dissemination, monitoring and inspections in the ministry of information, communications and technology, blamed the delay of service delivery on the unprofessional communication officers in government departments who fail to disseminate the information to the public.

"They fail to explain the Government programmes to the people through  radios, televisions and even social media, hence becoming obstacles to information flow," Watasa said.

While presenting a two-year comparative analysis carried out in 115 health facilities in 120 districts of Northern, Eastern and Western Uganda by World Vision,  Dr.Lawrence Sserwambala, said the study found out that, in the areas where there is social accountability sensitisation, the level of health rights awareness by citizens is 65% compared to 38% in the areas where there is no social accountability.

 "If the health seeking behavior percentage is 100 in the areas where there is no social accountability, it is over 180% in the areas where there is social accountability," Sserwambala said. 

Sserwambala added: "In the budget allocation structure, the budget clicks over sh.38m in the areas where there is social accountability compared to sh.23m in the areas where there is no social accountability,"

Youngsuk, KOICA country director, applauded the Government of Uganda, and Butaleja local government leaders for partnering with KOICA and World Vision to make the Maternal Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) project a reality, promising to continue supporting the development of Uganda's social sectors through its country partnership strategy that seeks to support the government of Uganda to realise its 2040 vision by targeting three key sectors of rural development, health and education.

 

 

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