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Kamuli, Uganda | THE INDEPEDENT | The State House Health Monitoring Unit has raised concern about deliberate absenteeism in health facilities in the Busoga sub-region.
Officials from the unit have spent the past two weeks carrying out spot checks on health center IIIs and IVs.
Warren Naamara, the Head of the Unit notes that some staff fake sickness and study leaves, only to spend time in private practice, and show up at their designated government facilities at leisure.
However, Naamara also noted the challenge of limited human resources in the health services sector due to the prevailing wage bill.
Naamara wants District Service Commissions to re-advertise jobs of health workers absconding from duty and employ those willing to serve the community.
Naamara further raised the land ownership challenges, with health facilities lacking land titles, which exposes them to encroachers. “Land is lucrative and only a genuine title can affirm ownership. We are registering population growth daily and there are plans of expansion, but if this untitled land is grabbed by encroachers, where will the government erect new infrastructure,” he said.
The Kamuli LCV Chairperson Maxwell Kuwembula said that land in the region is largely owned on a customary basis and some individuals offered the land for development however, grandchildren are claiming ownership.
Kuwembula wants the Ministry of Health to intervene by titling all land occupied by health facilities, which will safeguard it from encroachers.
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