Patients bask in the sun as they wait for doctors to attend to them.

By Frederick Womakuyu

Rose Chelangat, 24, had just delivered and had lost a lot of blood that she was bed-ridden. She could hardly stand up or speak. She urgently needed blood transfusion. Her newborn baby also needed some blood.

But Kaproron Health Centre IV — the only health facility in Kween district serving a population of about 205,000 people, did not have any. The newborn needed to be fixed on an oxygen concentrator  but the health facility did not have any.

Chelangat needed oxytocin to control bleeding but it was out of stock. Therefore, the health workers recommended that Chelangat and her baby be transferred to Kapchorwa Hospital, 40km from Kween.

But the health facility ambulance did not have fuel, so they asked her to pay for fuel. “But we did not have money, so we strapped her on a stretcher and rushed her to Kapchorwa Hospital,” explains Peter Chemisto, her husband.

However, halfway the journey, the mother died, leaving behind three children. The newborn baby was still alive but Chemisto did not have any more energy left to continue. Weeping, he decided to go home instead and by the time he reached, he had two dead bodies.

“I lost my child and the mother due to poor health services. A health facility is supposed to save lives but this one has become the leader in taking away lives,” says Chemisto.

Blood shortage

According to the in-charge, Boniface Muge, three newly born children die everyday because the facility has no blood transfusion services.

He adds that the facility also loses about two mothers every three months due to lack of blood.

In the maternity ward, there is nothing to write home about. While the three-bed labour suite glitters with new equipment including delivery kits and beds, there is no single doctor to operate on mothers who need a caesarean section yet the facility receives about 10 women per week that need one.

No wonder an average of 500 women in the district die of complications related to child birth annually, which is the second highest in Uganda, after Karamoja.

While the three enrolled midwives try as much as possible to help the mothers deliver properly, lack of an oxygen concentrator for the newborns to re-energise their breath and lack of oxytocin plugs the facility.

Like many rural facilities, this health centre also has no electricity yet a power line passes over their roof.

A huge generator that can power a full trading centre lies silent in the compound because they cannot afford fuel. Since they bought it, they have never used it due to lack of funds to get fuel to power it.

The health facility receives less than sh20m annually to carryout repairs and rehabilitation, fuel for vehicles and generator, administration and secretarial services. The facility uses charcoal to boil and sterilise delivery instruments. The fact is, Muge admits, most times the kits get contaminated, which affects the health of mothers.

While some mothers are able to deliver normally without any problems, they are told to buy everything including drugs, syringes, gloves and disinfectants like jik because the facility does not have them.

Jane Chebet, 34, a mother who had just delivered says she was asked to buy a syringe and the drugs at the nearest clinic which she suspects is owned by one of the health workers.

She was also asked to buy the gloves and Jik and all this cost her about sh30,000. At least she could afford it since her husband is a teacher. However, it took three days for her to finally get treatment.

“We buy everything here. The health workers tell us that they do not have what we need,” adds the mother five.

Death everyday

Despite having shiny new buildings, Kaproron health facility is known for having deaths almost every day. On the day New Vision visited the facility, all the drugs were out of stock and the few patients at the facility were advised to either buy some from the drug shops and clinics or go to Kapchorwa Hospital or simply go back home.

Alice Chelimo, 30, of Benet sub-county, had stayed for a week. Her son was suffering from severe malaria. The health facility did not have any antimalarial drugs to help him.

So, the health workers advised her to buy one from a clinic. She bought some at sh15,000 — the only money she has saved for close to a month and did not have anymore, yet by that time the boy had not yet recovered.

Severe staff shortages

Serving at a level of a hospital — this facility is supposed to have at least an X-ray or C-scan and several specialists. But the facility is serving at almost less than 10 percent health staffing professionals.

While they are supposed to have at least seven doctors, they have none. The only doctor at the district is the district health officer and due to his overwhelming duties, he rarely attends to the patients that need him.

The facility has no registered nurse except three enrolled nurses, yet these are supposed to be 25. The bottom line is that the health workers at Kaproron are some of the most overworked in the country. Some work for nearly 24 hours a day. No wonder many frustrated patients who cannot understand what goes on in there, are crying.

Boniface Muge explains that they want to recruit more staff but many people do not want to work there because the place is difficult to access with an impassable muddy road during the rainy season and poor pay.

According to Muge, while their counterparts in other districts like Bukwo are being paid a top up allowance of over 50% of what they earn, the health workers in Kaproron do not have any of this.

He, therefore, requests the ministry to pay them a hardship allowance to attract health workers there.

By Norman Katende

Staff and patients have abandoned over nine health centres in Amuru district due to the failure by the National Medical Stores (NMS) to supply them with drugs for over a year.

Among those health facilities abandoned is the sh120m Apaa Medical centre, which was constructed under the office of the Prime minister projects.

The centre, which has two houses, had a health assistant and three medical nurses to serve the population of Apaa and its neighbouring districts but after failing to get the drugs they entire team relocated to Pabo town.

The residents of the area have since then resorted to using traditional (herbal) medicines and self-medication.

“It was the nurses that first left after seeing that they had nothing to treat their patients with and also feared that the community might end up shifting blame on and attack them,” the LCIII chairman for Pabo county Christopher Ojera said.

“Most of them have resettled in Pabo to wait for the arrival of drugs. It is now over six months without getting drugs.”

He said that over eight health centres across the county have been forced to close.

“There are no drugs yet we have written letter to the district and National Medical stores with no results at all. We have also tried to request the area MPs and other politicians to try and meet these people to see that we at least get the basic drugs like for malaria and save the people from dying,” Ojera sounded disappointed.

He added that so many lives have been lost because of the long distance to other health units in the districts of Pabo, Gulu and Adjumani, also worsened by the poor state of the roads.

Source: New Vision

www.newvision.co.ug/section/53-10-Health.html

President Kagame examining drugs at Quality Chemicals in Kampala

By Conan Businge

President Paul Kagame has pledged that his Rwandan Governemnt will soon start buying some of its antiretroviral and anti-malarial drugs from Quality Chemicals in Uganda.

President Kagame made the pledge on his visit to Quality Chemicals factory in Kampala city’s suburb, Luzira, yesterday morning.

Quality Chemical’s chief executive officer, Emmanuel Katongole, in his brief to the press after the inspection of the factory on Friday, said President Kagame’s pledge will start with purchases for the public sector.

“We will also be selling to the private sector, on top of the public sector,” Katongole added. Katongole promised President Kagame drugs which meet the international standards.

“We shall offer you first-world quality of drugs, at third-world prices. Our prices are not the lowest, but are comparable to those recommended by World Health Organisation.” Quality Chemicals has already registered its products in Rwanda, and have a pre-qualification by WHO.

President Kagame also promised to work with Uganda, to locally process anti-malarial drugs’ raw materials- ‘Artemisia annua.’ Artemisia annua is the source of artemisinin, an antimalarial compound recommended by the World Health Organisation. Widely cultivated in China and Asia, Artemisia is a new crop for Africa and is largely limited to Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Today, the harvested plants in Uganda are exported for processing in India, after which Quality Chemicals, like other pharmaceutical companies, buys it as a raw material to produce antimalarial drugs.

“With Rwanda opening up its market for our products, it will greatly resonate Quality Chemicals in the rest of Africa and spur more investments in the rest of Africa,” Katongole said.

Katongole added that Quality Chemicals is also considering investing in Rwanda.

Quality Chemical Industries is a state-of-the-art pharmaceutical manufacturing plant located in Kampala, Uganda.

It exists as an additional contract manufacturing site for CIPLA Ltd, which manufactures and sells combination therapy antiretroviral and antimalarial drugs that have proven to be most effective in combating HIV/AIDS and Malaria.

Source: New Vision

http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/628633-rwanda-to-buy-uganda-s-drugs.html

Presidents L-R; Museveni, Kagame, Kikwete,Kibaki and Nkurunziza after the adoption and signing of EAC Customs Union in Arusha in 2009.