The Minister of State for Health in charge of General Duties, Anifa Kawooya Bangirana, has issued tough directives against absenteeism among government health workers who abandon their duties to run privately owned clinics. Speaking during her monitoring visit to Kumi District, Kawooya stated that the government will no longer tolerate health workers who neglect their responsibilities for private gain.
She directed that any health worker found absent from duty should face automatic suspension of their salary and immediate interdiction. ”There is no more suspension from working, it is suspension of salary and immediate interdiction,” she said. “We have tried all other measures and they have failed. So now as a minister, I am issuing directive.”
Kawooya explained that interdicted staff will only be given a chance to be heard and reinstated after appearing before the disciplinary committee. She also directed health workers operating private clinics to close them with immediate effect or resign from government service.
Kawooya instructed the Kumi District Health Department to halt community outreaches until staffing gaps in health facilities are addressed. She said the outreaches are being exploited by some health workers to steal government drugs meant for free distribution to the community, which are later sold or stocked in their private clinics.
She challenged health workers to serve willingly and with commitment, emphasizing that they applied for the jobs to save lives and not to endanger them. Stephen Opolot, the LC5 Chairperson for Kumi District, noted that Kawooya has clarified many issues that local leadership has been struggling to address regarding medical practitioners.
“We shall ensure that the medics accept to abide by the laws and serve the community because health is paramount,” Opolot. “As we implement the directives, we request the government to consider promoting many medics who qualified but have remained on the same level. It will motivate the workers if government allows us to consider promoting them through the wage structure.”
He appealed to the government to rescue the situation of health facilities in Kumi, especially Atutur Hospital, which is left with dilapidated structures. Medics in government service have, on several occasions, abandoned government facilities to set up private clinics adjacent to the facilities where they work, leaving the community yearning for essential government services-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
