Robinah Nabbanja,the State Minister for health has ordered all medical workers in government facilities to put on their uniform with immediate effect while on duty or risk losing their jobs.
“I want to see you putting on uniform, if you don’t put on uniform, is like you are saying bye bye to the profession, uniform is a must with effect from today not only Kyegegwa but all the health workers in the country,” she said.
Nabbanja said the move will assist patients to identify health workers who ask for bribes before offering health services. Her directive came as the minister toured Kyegegwa health centre IV after a woman reportedly died there in labour due to negligence by some health workers.
Some of Kyegegwa leaders accused the health workers of asking for bribe before attending to the patients which has resulted for a number of poor people dying.
These leaders also cited an incident where a cleaner was caught bribing a patient over 400 thousand shillings. However, Nabbanja urged all the health workers in the government health facilities to take their job seriously and be mindful about people’s lives.
“These people who are dying here are Ugandans, if you feel like you can longer be a health worker, you better quit instead of causing the death of many people,” she said.
She said Patients can even be deceived by the outsider more especially if one is not putting on something that can differentiate him or her from other people as a nurse.
“Yet in actual sense she is not. The bribery claims could be because of that. Somebody comes here camouflages and start extorting money from people,” she noted.
She also advised Ugandans to confiscate branded government drugs found in the private hospital.
“Why do you go to the hospital and they sell you branded government drugs?if you find drugs marked government of Uganda on a shop. Don’t pay for them just take them and leave,” she said.
She stressed that she will wage a serious war against the theft of government drugs starting from Kyegegwa health centre.
