Motivate health workers to retain them, Govt told

PIC: Dr Patrick Kadama, the director of policy and strategy ACHEST addressing CSO emmbers

Civil Society Organisations have asked for allocation of more funds to enable districts recruit more health workers.

"There should be a budget to motivate the health workers that we already have. This will help us retain them," said Dr Patrick Kadama, the director of policy and strategy Africa Centre for Global Health and Social transformation.

Kadama was speaking during a breakfast meeting of CSOs and MPs to discuss financing for human resource for health and sexual and reproductive health commodities for the 2018/19 financial years.

The meeting was organised by Health Systems Advocacy Partnership, together with White Ribbon Alliance at Golf Course Hotel in Kampala on Monday.

Kadama noted that there is shortage of health workers because the health worker-patient ratio is huge.

"Something needs to be done about staffing norms because the health worker structure currently used was meant to handle a population of the 1990s. But now the number of people seeking health services has more than tripled," he said.

In the same breath, Dr Eve Nakabembe, a gynecologist/obstetrician at Mulago Hospital, said recruiting health workers is not enough.

"What is important is to motivate health workers so as to retain them," Nakabenge said.

Dr Patrick Kagurusi, the Amref head of programmes, called upon MPs to advocate for favourable working conditions of health workers, so as not to lose health workers to other countries.