Staff Shortage Crippling Healthcare System

Members of Parliament on the Health Committee have raised the lack of motivation of health workers as a key factor in improving health service delivery in the country.

This came up during the committee’s meeting with officials from Moroto, Soroti and Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospitals, who on Tuesday presented their budget framework papers for the next financial year 2025/2026.

In his submission, Michael Odur, the Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital Principal Hospital Administrator said that 1.7 billion Shillings is required to fill several vacant positions of specialists needed at the hospital. He added that the hospital also requires additional funding to establish accommodation facilities for its staff.

“The hospital has very limited staff accommodation in that less than 17 per cent of the staff are accommodated and this affects timely service delivery. We request that we are allocated Shs4 billion to put up a sixteen-unit storied staff house,” Odur said.

Dr. Stephen Pande, the Moroto Regional Referral Hospital Director, also said that the hospital is staffed at 23 per cent, highlighting severe staff shortages in various departments, with 2.051 billion Shillings required to address the issue.

“The Ministry of Finance should progressively allocate resources for the rollout of new health sector staffing norms, with emphasis on recruitment of critical health sector cadres,” Dr Pande said.

Dr Benedicto Watmon, the Soroti Regional Referral Hospital Director, said 2.068 billion Shillings for wages in its proposed budget for the financial year 2025/2026 has not been allocated within the budget framework paper.

“We need this additional wage to cater for critical cadres with 1.75 billion Shillings, and boost staff levels from 22.5 per cent to 35 per cent with 313.3 million Shillings,” Dr Watmon added.

In response to the health sector budget challenges, Butaleja Woman MP, Florence Nebanda, noted that the country is losing medical specialists because they are not well motivated.

“Whenever we have challenges here, we make referrals to Kenyan hospitals but when you get there, you find most of our specialists there. As we make plans, we should consider packages to appreciate our health workers,” she said.

Nebanda also observed that several regional referral hospitals have procured key equipment to support major medical procedures, however, they have few or no specialists to operate the equipment.

“Last financial year, the Health Minister said there was no money to allow the recruitment to take place, but promised something this financial year. As the Committee, we should put a lot of effort into this,” Nebanda added.

George Bhoka Didi, the Obongi County MP, noted that the human resources for health services in the Karamoja sub-region were appalling, especially at Moroto Regional Referral Hospital.

He alluded to youths from the region who have been trained in medical and health services but have not yet been employed in the sector.

“Many of them have qualified and are volunteering in Abim, Kotido, Kaabong and Moroto districts, without accessing the payroll. We need to know why the Health Service Commission has failed to recruit and deploy these sons and daughters of Karamoja, who are itching to serve their people,” said Dr Bhoka.

Besides the concerns of limited resources to cater for human resources, MPs raised the need for quality health services including customer care, to be provided by the available staff.

Joseph Ruyonga, the Chairperson of the Health Committee urged the hospital directors to ensure customer care in health facilities.

“If it means having Continuing Medical Education every two weeks, let us do it. Our patients must experience good reception in these facilities,” he said.