Omar Kezimbira <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Regional - East African - Nairobi - Kenya
Monday, October 13, 2003
Your Views Demoralising Doctors, UMA Tells M-7
As a result of poor working conditions, many Ugandan doctors now work outside the country a good number of them in Kenya and Tanzania By DAVID MUSOKE
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTTHE UGANDA Medical Association (UMA) has answered President Yoweri Museveni's claims that the country's doctors are politically compromised, saying that even during the regime of Idi Amin, they upheld professional ethics.
The Uganda People's Congress (UPC) of former president Milton Obote said last week in a statement that President Museveni's letter in the press in which he said that he did not trust some Ugandan doctors, was "ridiculous and if left unchallenged would damage the image and reputation of the Uganda medical profession irretrievably.
"Even during Idi Amin's bloody regime when many health workers including doctors were killed, doctors never compromised their code of ethics. We treat all our patients equally, including murderers and thieves, otherwise we would have poisoned or mistreated Amin's killer soldiers," UMA president Dr Margarete Mungherera, told The EastAfrican last week.
As a result of poor working conditions, many Ugandan doctors now work outside the country, with a good number having found employment in Kenya and Tanzania.
The UMA boss said that, due to poor remuneration and working conditions, the medical profession in Uganda was suffering from a huge brain drain.
"After graduation, agents from Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Canada come to Uganda to recruit newly qualified doctors," she said.
Since 1972, Uganda has produced over 3,000 medical doctors, but currently only between 1,300 and 1,500 are practising in the country, with more than half having left to seek greener pasture elsewhere.
Dr Mungherera, was reacting to a seven-page statement by the Ugandan leader explaining why his daughter, Natasha Karugire, flew by presidential jet to Germany to deliver her baby "for security reasons."
Museveni said he was continuously targeted by assassins who would like to kill him and members of his family using different methods that include using local doctors, "some of whom are politically compromised."
He narrated a hair-raising attempt by one African president he did not name to kill him by planting a suspect parcel on his plane, a plot that was foiled by his bodyguard. He also expressed the "pains of living as a president of Uganda," like the difficulties of getting a medical test that involves blood "since there are chances of slow poisoning by a needle prick."
President Museveni has been criticised in the local press for sending his daughter abroad at the expense of taxpayers when there are good facilities at home.
"The president is entitled to his views but they are demoralising to the doctors local are working under very difficult conditions to provide a service to their patients," Dr Mungherera said. "A lot of this arises out of lack of information and misinformation. Doctors are not allowed to advertise themselves and their work. Even the national referral and teaching hospital at Mulago in Kampala does not have a public relations office to defend the profession."
The UMA secretary general Dr Myers Lugemwa said doctors in Uganda worked under difficult conditions due to gross understaffing and inadequate facilitation but still upheld professional ethics.
On the cases mentioned by President Museveni of doctors having acted unprofessionally, the UMA secretary general said that every case of unprofessional conduct by a doctor reported in the press or by a patient was investigated by the relevant medical council and appropriate disciplinary action taken, including deregistration.
"Every profession everywhere has rotten eggs. When you look at the crimes committed by medical personnel in the West, those in Africa are minor," Dr Lugemwa said.
In Uganda the doctor-to-patient ratio is 1:23,000, whereas in Kenya it is 1:5,000 and Tanzania 1:800. "As a result of understaffing, fatigue is common and doctors are bound to make mistakes," Dr Lugemwa said.
In Kenya doctors earn three times the salary and allowances of their Uganda counterparts, he said.
Recently, the Uganda Medical Workers Union (UMWU) threatened to go on strike to demand better terms and conditions of work. But the strike was called off after a meeting between President Museveni and UMWU officials.
After a 1996 strike by doctors, the government agreed to carry out a job evaluation and grading of personnel working in the public service with a view to coming up with a good package for public servants.
"We were unhappy with the packages which came out in 2000," Dr Mungherera said. "First, we were not consulted and second, instead of our salaries and allowances being increased they were reduced."
The new package did not take into consideration the peculiar working environment faced by doctors, the abnormal work rhythm, the risks associated with HIV/Aids and the responsibility for the preservation of life, she explained.
"We are currently negotiating with the government to come up with better terms and conditions for health workers" she said. "Once we are given a good pay package, we are going to ensure that we have a committed and patriotic workforce. The way things are now, you can't enforce discipline."
Additional reporting by Barbara Among
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