Francis Winnyi, a Councillor representing Mazinga Parish to Buwunga sub-county says that the absence of staff quarters at Mazinga government health Centre; the only facility in their area, has rendered health workers inefficient because patients cannot be attended to in time.
Leaders
and residents in Masaka district have expressed concern over the lack of staff
quarters in government health centres in the area. This, they say, compromises the
quality of health services.
Masaka
district has six governments lower health center II’s that include; Zzimwe and
Buyaga in Kyannamukaaka sub county, Kitunga and Kamwozi Health Centers II in
Kyesiiga sub county, Mazinga Health Centre II in Buwunga sub county and Lambu
Health Centre II in Bukakata sub county.
According to
locals, despite being the closest service delivery points, the
facilities are not serving to their expectations largely due to a lack of
reliable staff at the stations.
Francis
Winnyi, a Councillor representing Mazinga Parish to Buwunga sub-county
says that the absence of staff quarters at Mazinga government health
Centre; the only facility in their area, has rendered health workers
inefficient because patients cannot be attended to in time.
He
explains
that they are also finding it hard to hold the health workers
accountable for their inefficiencies, thereby appealing to the
government to consider improving the
standards of lower-level health units especially in the rural areas and
strategically help to address the problem of patient backlogs in
higher health facilities.
//Cue in; “eddwaliro lyaffe…
Cue out…okusomoozebwa ku ddwaliro.”//
Janifer
Nakalema, a resident of Mazinga says that patients who are recommended for
regular follow-up are usually inconvenienced because they cannot get the
services, especially in the morning and evening hours. As a result, she says,
many are forced into moving long distances on self-referral to either Buwunga
Health Center III or Masaka Hospital.
Nakalema prefers
that the health centre is also supported to offer maternity services to
expectant mothers who currently have limited options because the
midwives cannot be readily accessed especially at night.
Jane
Francis
Kizito, the female councillor representing Kamwozi and Buyaga parishes
to
Kyesiiga sub-county says his constituents that are served by Kamwozi
health centre II are also affected as health workers use the excuse of
staff
quarters as justification for their chronic absenteeism from work.
According
to
her, the health centre structures, medical equipment, and drugs are at
risk of vandalism and theft because they are left with nobody to watch
over them at
night and over the weekends.
//Cue in; “tulina okusomoozebwa…
Cue out….batuyambe batukwatireko.”//
Martin
Ssenkeezi, the Buwunga sub-county chairperson says that they have
noticed
authorities at Masaka district local government about the urgency of
constructing staff quarters at lower-level health facilities. He says
they are also mobilizing communities to
contribute materials and others resources to respond to the problem as
they
wait for the government to come in and rescue the situation.
But the
2021/22 Masaka district approved work plan did not provide for the construction of
staff quarters as any of the health centres, it budgeted for 13 million
shillings to construct only one Outpatient Department-OPD ward at Kitunga
Health Centre II in Kyesiiga sub-county.
