Doctors reap from private facilities as poor Ugandans die

Nov 20, 2017

I have read your demands and agree that the salary you get is little compared to what doctors get in other states

By Michael Woira

Dear Uganda medical doctors,

I have read your demands and agree that the salary you get is little compared to what doctors get in other states. It takes years of intensive study, hard physical and mental work and unsocial hours of duty.

It is quite legitimate to seek a higher salary and allowances reflective of your years of training. I am with you in your demand as many more Ugandans.

But I must divert from your company and methodology, deplore and denounce you for the means you have chosen to have your demands fulfilled. It is a conduct unbecoming of a doctor.

On graduation, you took a Hippocratic Oath. What you are doing is simply violating that sacred oath, which puts you doctors on a higher pedestal in any society.

Think, who goes to government hospitals? Poor, deprived, destitute. Those who live in huts and shacks on the pavements, the very poor, those with emergencies etc who constitute the majority of the population. They are suffering and dying because of your actions.

Tell me, are they the ones who will make decisions about your demands? Certainly not. So why have you targeted them? What harm have they done to you? Your action is nothing sort of irresponsible and criminal.

Can you not see that by targeting these poor and deprived you are alienating those whom you should be bringing to your side and make them sympathise with your just demands? By your actions, you have not only lost their trust, but made them your enemies.

If incase this isn't political, then there is no reason for you to continue striking, yet you even still want your jobs back in case the issue is sorted. If I may ask, will you take back the salary on your accounts for the time you have taken off duty? Will you refund since you will be receiving it without work being done?.

I say this without fear because many people have died in my presence ever since you started striking and I know the pain that the families of these people are going through.

By your action, you have given proof of moral decline in society. I am sure in the earlier days of independence, health workers never proved to be disastrous like you are presently. Maybe I should also say that issues suffered by today's doctors were unknown during those days.

I support your cause, but not in a way that hurts the innocent. Think of protesting in a different way which doesn't harm poor and the disadvantaged.

Go back to work, see these patients, make them aware to your plights, gain their sympathy and bring them on your side as these other issues are sorted by the commission that was put in place to work on the salary disparities.

I know many of you are earning a lot of money during this period because some of us have analysed your strike and found out the other side of it, one of my friend doctor told me that ever since the strike started, the statistics shows that private hospitals, clinics and pharmacies have got high numbers of patients and this has really worked out for all these doctors who have private workplaces, you are now directing all patients to your private work places and overcharging them for the services.

As a person who foresees issues at times, I see you still want the strike to go on because you are ripping a lot of money from patients who are using your facilities, do all you are doing but just know you are punishing your fellow human beings, being a doctor shouldn't let you think that you next to God and you have to act and arrogantly speak like your leader has been doing since the activism started.

For now I will stop and look at you enjoying money at your clinics as poor Ugandans who cannot afford bills at your private hospitals die.

The writer is a Ugandan

 

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