When will health be a priority?
May 08, 2007
SIR — Brig Noble Mayombo was a rising star not only in the military but also in politics. Many of us looked at him as a future leader at the very top. We hope from his death a few lessons have been learned. One of them is that we should fix healthcare in the country.
SIR — Brig Noble Mayombo was a rising star not only in the military but also in politics. Many of us looked at him as a future leader at the very top. We hope from his death a few lessons have been learned. One of them is that we should fix healthcare in the country.
An Indian friend once told me that he could not understand why so many Ugandans go to India for heart surgery when the equipment was cheap enough for Uganda to afford. Maybe he doesn’t know how poor Uganda is.
And just how much does a dialysis machine cost?
If our hospitals had one, maybe Mayombo would still be alive today! At least he could have had some lease of life until doctors from Israel or Russia arrived! We cannot always expect to take our senior people out of the country.
The shortest flight from Nairobi to Entebbe is 45 minutes. It takes another one hour if you stay on the wrong end of town (like Bukoto in Mayombo’s case) to get to Entebbe. By the time you get to a Nairobi hospital, it will be well over three hours if you are lucky.
If Mulago was well equipped, many people would get there in 20 minutes! For how long must Ugandans continue dying because those in authority are busy soliciting votes and don’t know what is happening in the country?
Edward Okadapao
Tororo
SIR — As we struggle to come to terms with the death Of Brig. Noble Mayombo, sadness is gradually turning into anger, and rightly so.
As more details emerge of the events before his death, it becomes clear that Mayombo’s life could have been saved if only Mulago Hospital had had the required capacity (dialysis and oxygenator machine).
Lessons must be learnt from this tragedy. One glaring anomaly is lack of or inadequate capacity in our health services. We lack capacity both on institutional and administrative levels.
Arthur Mulumba
United Kingdom
An Indian friend once told me that he could not understand why so many Ugandans go to India for heart surgery when the equipment was cheap enough for Uganda to afford. Maybe he doesn’t know how poor Uganda is.
And just how much does a dialysis machine cost?
If our hospitals had one, maybe Mayombo would still be alive today! At least he could have had some lease of life until doctors from Israel or Russia arrived! We cannot always expect to take our senior people out of the country.
The shortest flight from Nairobi to Entebbe is 45 minutes. It takes another one hour if you stay on the wrong end of town (like Bukoto in Mayombo’s case) to get to Entebbe. By the time you get to a Nairobi hospital, it will be well over three hours if you are lucky.
If Mulago was well equipped, many people would get there in 20 minutes! For how long must Ugandans continue dying because those in authority are busy soliciting votes and don’t know what is happening in the country?
Edward Okadapao
Tororo
SIR — As we struggle to come to terms with the death Of Brig. Noble Mayombo, sadness is gradually turning into anger, and rightly so.
As more details emerge of the events before his death, it becomes clear that Mayombo’s life could have been saved if only Mulago Hospital had had the required capacity (dialysis and oxygenator machine).
Lessons must be learnt from this tragedy. One glaring anomaly is lack of or inadequate capacity in our health services. We lack capacity both on institutional and administrative levels.
Arthur Mulumba
United Kingdom