The recruitment of staff for Health Centre IVs and district general hospitals could soon be taken away from District Service Commissions and placed under the Health Service Commission as the government moves to address concerns over staff efficiency and supervision.
The Ministry of Health says the proposed policy change is intended to improve accountability and service delivery by allowing health workers in the targeted facilities to be centrally recruited and managed. Dr Richard Kabanda, the Commissioner for Health Promotion at the Ministry of Health, said the government is in advanced stages of revising the policy to empower the Health Service Commission to take over the recruitment and management of staff at Health Centre IVs and district general hospitals.
Kabanda said the current arrangement, where individual districts recruit health workers through their District Service Commissions, has contributed to inefficiencies in some government health facilities. He said Ministry of Health performance assessments had found that some health workers become complacent when recruited and posted within their home districts.
According to Kabanda, District Service Commissions tend to give preference to residents of their respective areas, and some staff posted in their localities subsequently become less responsive to their duties. He said centralised recruitment could help address the problem by strengthening the management and supervision of health workers. Kabanda was speaking at the commissioning of a new maternity ward at Kirumba Health Centre III in Kyotera District.
Kabanda said the policy review is also intended to ensure that improved remuneration for health workers translates into better and more reliable services for patients. He challenged district leaders to strengthen supervision of health facilities and address cases of staff laxity.
Meanwhile, Mathias Mulindwa Kagugube, the Kyotera Deputy Resident District Commissioner, said the district is working to strengthen the role of lower local council leaders in supervising government social service delivery points.
Kagugube said local leaders and residents would be given channels to report civil servants who fail to perform their duties. “We are setting up call centres where local leaders and residents can report any civil servant who fails to perform their duties as expected, and our teams will be responding accordingly,” he said.The proposed policy change is part of the Ministry of Health’s efforts to realign its systems for improved supervision, accountability and quality of healthcare delivery-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
