KABALE, November 10, 2023 – Increasing cases of absenteeism and late coming of health workers have been blamed on lack of enough staff houses at the health centres established in Kabale district.
This was revealed during the Committee on Health’s oversight visit to various health facilities in the district on Wednesday.
Kabale Ag District Health Officer, Barnabas Tiwangye said most of the health centres are still grappling with accommodation challenges with some staff being forced to sleep in hospital wards.
“In most of our health centre IVs, majority of staff stay outside the facility. Our staff accommodation stands at less than 15 per cent. This contributes to late coming and absenteeism as staff have to maneuver the terrains to reach the health centres. This has affected the performance of most of our staff,” Tiwangye said.
Apart from having a regional referral hospital and two other general hospitals, Kabale has four health centre IVs out of which three are fully functional with the exception of Kakomo Health Centre IV which lacks adequate infrastructure, human resource and basic equipment such as a theatre, ultrasound scan and laboratory equipment.
To address the issue of staff absenteeism, Mbarara district Woman legislator, Margaret Ayebare advised the leadership in Kabale to borrow a leaf from neighbouring Rubanda district which carries out regular attendance analysis and set up tough measures to ensure reliability and availability of staff at the health centres and hospitals.
She added: “We have given you enough money as scientists and it should motivate you to be on duty. In Rubanda, they hold your salary if you are absent on duty and you will have to face disciplinary measures. Nonetheless, we shall ensure that there is money for staff housing.” She said housing shortages are a cross-cutting issue in many other districts of Uganda.
Due to its topography which makes accessibility difficult, the MPs agreed that Kigezi Sub-region be treated as a hard-to-reach area and thus, prioritised for staff houses.
The district is also stranded with several health projects constructed by the UPDF Engineering Brigade which have stalled while others have not kicked off despite the contractor receiving funds.
“We have set up a meeting of the committee and UPDF Engineering Brigade to solve this matter. They are paid all the money, but work has not even started on many projects. And even the quality of work is deteriorating because they are having so many projects to run,” Nicholas Kamara , the Kabale Municipality MP, who was also the leader of the delegation said.
https://thecooperator.news/amuru-health-workers-decry-inadequate-accommodation/
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