{"id":57656,"date":"2023-10-18T06:43:16","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T06:43:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?p=57656"},"modified":"2023-10-18T06:09:14","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T06:09:14","slug":"pay-rise-fails-to-hook-health-workers-to-their-workplaces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/pay-rise-fails-to-hook-health-workers-to-their-workplaces","title":{"rendered":"Pay rise fails to hook health workers to their workplaces"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. <\/strong><\/span>The huge pay rise for health workers in public facilities has not had a significant impact on their attitude towards work and output, government officials and legislators have indicated.<\/b><\/p>\n

This is coming a year after the implementation of the presidential directive started. Among the vices that legislators and officials said persisted is chronic absenteeism from work, with some consultants showing up for work only 8 days a month yet getting a full monthly salary of Shs12 million. The monthly salary of consultants was increased from the Shs6 million they were getting previously.<\/p>\n

Ms Margaret Ayebare Rwebyambu, a member of the Parliamentary Health Committee, told our reporter after a tour at Mulago Specialised Women and Neonatal, that there is an urgent need to address absenteeism in all public facilities to improve access to care for patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Members of Parliament, we really come against that [vice of absenteeism] where some of the consultants come in, and then move around and clock out, going to private hospitals,\u201d the Mbarara district woman MP.<\/p>\n

Talking about the action to address absenteeism, Dr Jolly Nankunda, a consultant paediatrician and deputy director of the Mulago Specialised Women and Neonatal, said they have assigned officers to specifically monitor the consultants and specialists to ensure they are offering services to patients.<\/p>\n

Dr Henry Mwebesa, the Director General of health services at the Ministry of Health, said during a recent supervision tour of selected hospitals across the country, they discovered that one of the consultants was showing up for duty only eight days a month.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the consultant whose salary has been enhanced to Shs12m…I keep asking them, \u2018Can you do that in a private facility? Why would you do that in a government hospital and get away with it?\u2019 Our problem is still governance, those who supervise the health workers,\u201d Dr Mwebesa said.<\/p>\n

The Director General revealed that the consultant was only working Wednesday and Saturday. \u201cAnd we have interns there. When interns have a problem, they write notes, take a picture and send it to him then he gives them guidance on the phone and then they [interns] wait for him on Saturday,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Research reports show that absenteeism, which was previously linked to a lack of motivation due to low pay, deprives patients of their right to access care, pushing them to drug shops and clinics \u2013many providing substandard care.<\/p>\n

According to information from the Health Ministry, \u201ctotal absenteeism including absenteeism with approval still averages 50 percent [in public health facilities].\u201d The unauthorised public sector absenteeism rate is 11 percent and authorised absenteeism is 38 percent, bringing that average to 50 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is an inadequate engagement of the health workforce characterised by a high rate of authorised absenteeism of 38 percent, weak health workforce performance, low motivation and productivity and limited impact. This is due to ineffective performance management system, weak leadership, inadequate supervision and support, and weak onboarding system,\u201d the Ministry said in the Ministry Of Health Human Resources for Health Strategic Plan 2020-2030.<\/p>\n

In the proposal to reduce absenteeism, the ministry said there is a need to \u201cscale up and maintain absenteeism tracking and reporting at all levels; Institute mechanisms to link attendance to duty with individual outputs and results and to institute measures to link pay to attendance to duty and performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The absenteeism of the medical staff, coupled with low staffing in public health facilities, means patients will spend more time waiting to be attended to as the few workers handle patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe health workforce density of 1.6 per 1,000 falls far short of the 4.45 per 1,000 population WHO [World Health Organisation] threshold for progress towards UHC [Universal Health Coverage]. If 38 percent of the 74 percent of health workers are absent then in reality on average only about 46 percent of the health workers in employment are present at the health facility at any one time. Overall, the availability of the health workforce is low,\u201d the Ministry further noted in the plan.<\/p>\n

During the tour at Mulago Specialised Women and Neonatal, patients, who are optimistic about quality services at the hospital which boasts of some of the top specialists, about 40 in number, said the waiting time is too long. However, this reporter couldn\u2019t independently verify whether the long waiting time was due to absenteeism.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe time spent here is too much. I came here at 7 am but up to now we haven\u2019t been handled,\u201d says Ms Irene kasule, a resident of Kakiri in Wakiso District. She spoke at midday. She had come for antenatal care.<\/p>\n

Mr Polly Nuwagaba, a health worker who had brought his wife to the antenatal clinic of the facility, said: \u201cFrom outside the quality of services appears to be good. But up to now, we haven\u2019t been served.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prof Charles Ibingira, a senior researcher from Makerere University College of Health Sciences, who is leading a project to improve maternal, sexual and reproductive health, said even the staff who are at work are not doing their best.<\/p>\n

\u201cUganda has very many policies for addressing maternal, sexual and reproductive health issues. But most of the implementers, even doctors, don\u2019t know what the goal is. They just wake up and do what they were taught at the medical school without minding about the policy and what the country wants to achieve,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dr Rosemary Byanyima, the acting executive director of Mulago Hospital, on the other hand, said they are closely monitoring the consultants to ensure they are delivering services to patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cMulago Hospital is very busy, so you find a consultant on Monday, he is giving lectures; on Tuesday he is doing a major ward round; on Wednesday he is in theatre; on Thursday is running an outpatient clinic, and on Friday he is doing some research,\u201d the consultant said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we expect them to put in some more time in clinical work. And even the research they are doing, we want to see the outcome,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Uganda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. The huge pay rise for health workers in public facilities has not had a significant impact on their attitude towards work and output, government officials and legislators have indicated. This is coming a year after the implementation of the presidential directive started. Among the vices that legislators and officials said persisted is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":57655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-57656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nPay rise fails to hook health workers to their workplaces - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The huge pay rise for health workers in public facilities has not had a significant impact on their attitude towards ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/pay-rise-fails-to-hook-health-workers-to-their-workplaces\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pay rise fails to hook health workers to their workplaces\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The huge pay rise for health workers in public facilities has not had a significant impact on their attitude towards ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/pay-rise-fails-to-hook-health-workers-to-their-workplaces\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-18T06:43:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2023\/10\/sm_1697596541.924602.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"568\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/pay-rise-fails-to-hook-health-workers-to-their-workplaces#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/pay-rise-fails-to-hook-health-workers-to-their-workplaces\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Pay rise fails to hook health workers to their workplaces\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-18T06:43:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/pay-rise-fails-to-hook-health-workers-to-their-workplaces\"},\"wordCount\":1008,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/pay-rise-fails-to-hook-health-workers-to-their-workplaces#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2023\/10\/sm_1697596541.924602.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/pay-rise-fails-to-hook-health-workers-to-their-workplaces#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/pay-rise-fails-to-hook-health-workers-to-their-workplaces\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/pay-rise-fails-to-hook-health-workers-to-their-workplaces\",\"name\":\"Pay rise fails to hook health workers to their workplaces - 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