Luuka, (UG):- The Resident District Commissioner (RDC) for Luuka district Mr. Katende Ronald Kinene has ordered an arrest of a health worker following negligence and extortion from patients at Kiyunga Health Center IV which resulted in the death of a child.
Mr Joel Mbwoira, a clinical officer at Kiyunga Health Centre IV in Luuka district was arrested while his colleague Ms. Viola Namugere is on the run and efforts to apprehend her for prosecution-led investigations are underway.
Accompanied by his assistant Mr. Umar Ntogona and the DISO, Mr. Katende made a surprise visit to the facility where he noted absenteeism and negligence of duty, which led to the death of a child. It is reported that the facility team didn’t attend to the child at the time of admission.
It is reported that when Namugere saw the situation, she decided to run away from the health centre and the RDC Mr Katende learnt from people at the facility that the mother of the deceased child wasn’t attended to by Namugere who was on duty on the fateful day.
“I was in the ward and heard that the child had died and no one was at the reception to offer any first aid,” one of the caretakers said. “It can be explained when someone dies on a drip other than dying out of neglect,” another client at the facility said on condition of anonymity.
Joel Mbwoira was taken to Luuka CPS over extortion after being accused of extorting money from patients before offering services.
The accusations
Ms Naigaga Safiyati, a resident of Kimanto village in Bukanga Sub County accused the Clinical Officer of taking 30,000/= from her for the treatment of her son. The situation prompted the RDC to arrest him.
“I told her about my child who is having a wound and he asked for 40,000/= from me which I didn’t have at the moment. I gave him 25,000/= cash and other money was sent to me later on mobile money,” Ms. Naigaga explained to RDC Katende.
Some patients also told the RDC and his team that the situation at Bukanga Health Center III is also worse, prompting them to seek services at Kiyunga HCIII. This prompted him and his team to visit the facility where they questioned the Assistant Medical Superintendent Bukanga Health Center III Mr. Ssegonga Andrew, who denied the allegations.
The RDC Katende said they have been hearing about reports of poor services at Kiyunga Health Center IV and he condemned the habit by a section of workers at the facility which cost the life of an innocent child. He was puzzled to learn that patients were being asked to buy medicine outside the facility yet the medical store possessed the necessary assortment of drugs.
“We got bad news today about the negligence of duty which resulted in the death of a child under the mango tree. My team reached and found that Ms Viola who was on duty at OPD reported in the morning and later left, this is an issue because a number of workers in Luuka report and leave without work,” Katende said.
“We established that people are charged money for services at the facility yet we reached the medical stores and found various drugs which were recently supplied by the Uganda Medical Stores. We found no drugs at the dispensary area and no one was able to explain this,” RDC Katende said before confirming that the hunt for Namugere Viola is ongoing to face charges of negligence of duty.
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