Our Side of the Story - Ugandan health workers speak up - VSO

Our Side of the Story: Ugandan health workers speak up
face patients and their relatives knowing
that essential supplies were lacking:
“Staff don’t want to come in and look
at a mother with a dying child and no
canula to give intravenous fluids.”
The impact on community
relations
Health workers felt blamed for the lack
of supplies and resented accusations
of theft. The patient’s attitude changed
when asked to buy supplies: “You feel
bad when somebody is not appreciating
what you are doing.” Patients’ carers
were sometimes angry and violent,
such as the husband who hit a midwife
when asked to buy gloves.
There were fears of personal
repercussions if the rule was disregarded
and the patient was asked to buy
supplies: “The Government is going to
see you as a bad person.” Staff in one
facility were stressed by the arrest of a
health worker who asked a patient to
buy essential supplies. The view there
was that local political candidates had
set the arrest in motion to discredit the
incumbent leader.
Participants’ recommendations include:
• encouragement to international
donors to supply large items of
equipment directly
• more attention to the maintenance
of essential equipment
• management consultation with
frontline workers to identify and
act on equipment shortfalls,
alongside empowerment of
workers through educating them
on how the supply system works.
Attending a weekly mother-and-baby group.
Children and pregnant women are the largest
groups of health facility patients.
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