The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Masaka hospital authorities have defied the State House Health Monitoring Unit (HMU) and ordered staff to vacate the hospital quarters.
Last month, the unit stopped management of the hospital from increasing staff contributions towards maintaining their quarters. It follows a proposal by Masaka Regional Referral Hospital management to increase the fees from Shillings 30,000 to Shillings 50,000 each month.
A section of the affected health workers petitioned HMU after receiving notifications that the hospital authorities were going to evict staff that had not re-applied for the staff quarters.
Dr Nathan Onyachi, the Director Masaka Regional Referral Hospital, says that the hospital asked all health workers that had lost the houses, to file appeals so that their cases can be looked into by the hospital management.
He says that some of the staff who lost their appeals had not completely applied for the house yet it was an important requirement for anyone to be considered for getting a house while others scored low marks according to the house allocation scoring chart which considered issues like working in critical service delivery area, such as theatre, ICU and labour ward among other units.
Onyachi says that others were not complying with payment of maintenance fees while others had allocated the houses to their friends and relatives for years.
He says that the health workers have been given enough time to vacate the houses.
However, a health worker who preferred anonymity claims that most of the staff that retained the houses bribed the committee.
Justus Nsabimana, the nurses’ union chairperson for Masaka regional referral hospital says that the action is uncalled for.
He wonders why the hospital management is rushing to evict the staff yet the health monitoring unit had asked the management to maintain the status quo.
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