A due expectant mother name withheld arrived at Hoima Regional Referral Hospital for a C-Section. After admission, the doctors solicited a bribe of Ugx 450, 000/= for her operation to be conducted. After her pleading to save her life and the baby failed, she called on her relatives who looked for the money but unfortunately, the mother lost the baby in her womb. She was rushed to the theater around 2 am to remove the dead fetus but her uterus was not spared by the medical doctors who attended to her. She is in a sorry health state with difficulty in urinating and defecating plus a deeply stressed mind as she only keeps shading tears throughout the day and night.
The second mother also name withheld had a Intra Uterine Fetal Death but had stayed in the hospital for 5 days without getting medical attention as she could not pay the bribes asked by the doctors.
The ONC coordinator Mr. Tunura Brian who was executing his monitoring role yesterday, tells, “I found her crying with the caregivers looking at her in a sorry state. When I asked, I only got answered by frightened faces which pushed me closer to finding out what the problem could be”
The ONC coordinator continues to narrate “One of the caretakers got the courage to explain the whole hell to me after disclosing who I am and I demanded the nurses to call the doctors immediately who were even not at the station but on my insisting to call Police, the doctors showed up and rushed her to the theater for an operation.”
The over-congested referral hospital has terrifying stories from patients about the ill-treatment of medical persons to those who do not have money to pay bribes. “Here you have to pay right from the Askari at the gate to allow you in, especially in the evening hours. You have to pay your records to be taken and to have a doctor work on your case” explained another patient.
The Senior House Officers in the government hospitals are on strike over delayed payment with medical interns who contribute 90% of the medical duties in the government facilities are non-deployed despite the over-stretched engagements by the Ministry of Health to calm the situation.
Reported by: ONC Online Media
