No more medical fees at Kamuli Hospital

PIC: Minister Moses Kizige issues the directive while meeting with Kamuli Hospital staff. (Credit: Geoffrey Namukoye)

KAMULI - The Minister of State for Karamojia affairs, Moses Kizige, has halted the collection of medical fees by Kamuli Hospital health workers, saying it is against government policy and therefore criminal in nature.

Kizige issued the directive inside the Kamuli Hospital boardroom while meeting health workers who had threatened to strike for serving in an environment they characterised as full of intimidation and oppression.

"This act is illegal and criminal! As minister, I have henceforth stopped the collection of any kind of fees in this hospital," he said.

Whereas many issues where highlighted in the petition by aggrieved hospital staff, the arrest of a senior nursing officer in April and her re-arrest in September by the State House health monitoring team took centrestage, a scenario they called witch-hunting.

Tracing events preceding the standoff, Betty Kyaterekera who presented the petition to the minister, said that on April 28, Sr. Hellen Naiga, a senior nursing assistant, was arrested for allegedly extorting money from a patient who had given birth by caesarean section.

Whereas Naiga was given police bond then, she was re-arrested late September and is now committed to the Anti-corruption Court for a vice regularized by the hospital administration.

Kyaterekera said while it not in the nature of government hospitals to charge fees for health services, Kamuli Hospital staff get money from clients on the directive of top hospital staff.

"We thought it is a normal practice [collecting money from patients] since it is a documented instruction from our supervisors," she said.

Price lists and books of accounts seen by the New Vision in various wards proved health services in Kamuli Hospital are provided at a cost.

The minister's directive came as a relief to health workers who seemed torn between asking for money from patients to please supervisors, and avoiding impromptu arrest by not asking for money.

In a rather veiled manner, health workers demanded for accountability of money received from patients in the last five years. "For the last five years, money been collected, but where does it go? They should account for it" said a visibly aggrieved female health worker.

Putting the witch-hunt allegation into perspective, Minister Kizige said: "From my observation, this is an institutionalized crime and therefore it is not irregular to single out one individual for action."

The minister promised to share the petition with the health minister and the Speaker of Parliament for appropriate action.

He also challenged health workers to boost their incomes by tapping into government programmes of Operation Wealth Creation such as planting oranges and coffee.

Whereas Naiga's case remained critical, in Dr. Charles Wako's view, who is also the medical superintendent of Kamuli hospital, other pertinent demands such as lack of an X-ray machine, ambulance and limited medicine in the hospital were equally critical and therefore deserved mention.