Court orders gov't to budget for maternal health services

The Constitutional Court has directed the Government to provide sufficient funds for maternal healthcare in the next national budget.

The ruling follows a petition filed by Centre for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD), in 2011, challenging actions and omissions of the Government in failing to provide basic maternal health services and commodities in public health facilities.

The suit is premised on the deaths, during childbirth, of Jennifer Anguko, who died on December 10, 2010 in Arua Hospital and Sylvia Nalubowa, who died on August 19, 2019 in Mityana Hospital.

According to documents, both women died when they needed caesarean delivery but failed to access the commodities and human resources required to obtain the same. In a ruling delivered yesterday, a panel of five justices led by Cheborion Barishaki ruled that the death of the two women was the result of the nonavailability of basic maternal health services and negligence of health workers.

Other justices on the panel were acting Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny Dollo, Kenneth Kakuru, Stephen Egonda-Ntende and Christopher Madrama.

The court awarded petitioners Rhoda Kukiriza and Valente Inziku sh155m each, in damages for the psychological torture, loss suffered and violation of rights. Kukiriza is Nalubowa's mother while Inziku is Anguko's husband.

"I have no doubt that the Government has made attempts to address the omissions by putting in place the right policies. However, for the right to maternal health to be realised, subsequent implementation of the policies, their extension and evaluation has to be done which to a large extent has not been the case," Barishaki noted.

The judge said adverse effects on maternal health impact negatively on society's wellbeing, especially on its health, which has resulted in the breach of the obligations vested upon the State.

Justice Madrama saidfailure to provide sufficient healthcare facilities through effective policy or failure to implement policy threatens the lives of mothers.

Speaking to journalists shortly after the judgment, CEHURD's director of programmes Noor Nakibuuka Musisi said: "Following the landmark ruling, we can now hold government accountable for whatever they do. The right to health has to be provided for by the Government immediately."

Ibrahim Nsereko, CEHURD's programme manager, said the judgement is not only for the mothers who died but also for all mothers, daughters and fathers all over the country.

Asia Russell, the executive director of Health Gap, said maternal deaths can be preventable if the necessary resources are put in place.