Amos Tayebwa
Mbarara
According to a report that came out during the free health medical camp that was held at St. Pauls SS Rushooka in Kayonza sub-county in Rushenyi county, Ntungamo District, over 6000 people turned up seeking for free medical services, something that left leaders, medics and religious leaders worried.
The Archdiocese of Mbarara Development Association (AMDA) had organised caravan 2024 dubbed Rushooka caravan.
This took about four days in Rushenyi County that happened in two catholic parishes of Bwizibwera and Rushooka.
On September 7, 2024, there was a mega medical camp that was held at Rushooka H/C 4 and St. Pauls SS Rushooka where a number of over 6000 people went home smiling after receiving free medical services. These were attended to by more than 500 medical personnel including specialists from across Uganda’s medical / health facilities. This was under the mobilization of the Area Member of Parliament for Rushenyi County, Naome Kabasharira in collaboration with AMDA Community.
However, this left questions among the leaders and medical personnel including religious leaders on the state of Government health facilities.
AMDA Chaplain, Fr. Darious Magunda, told Journalists that the community of AMDA coming to Rushooka was meant to render services to people as far as medical services were concerned.
Fr. Magunda revealed that it has been established that the medical services in this country are not yet up to date, with so many things missing.
“Most of our health units according to what our people tell us, they do not have enough medicine, they don’t have enough facilities to check the people or diagnose diseases. So we call upon the government to partner with the willing institutions and organisations, especially the medical institutions run by religious based organisations to provide facilities to manpower so that our people may be served much better than they are today,” said Fr. Magunda
He added: “Looking at the lines of the people coming for free services it’s a clear message that people are really suffering, their health conditions are not so good, so we call on the Government to do their best. We are told that most of our health units do not have the basic diagnosis equipment like scanners and so on and so people just end up treating themselves, like buying drugs without diagnosing what they are suffering from. So this is our mandate as government and us as non-government organisations to ensure our people live in good health,” he added.
Francis Mwijukye, the Buhweju Member of Parliament and a member of AMDA revealed that big queues of people that were lining up for free medical services during AMDA Medical Camp indicates that there are very many people suffering from various diseases in the communities across the country. He said that people are poor to the extent that they cannot access medicine by themselves because they are not in the medical facilities.
“We have medical facilities in Uganda but most of them are just structures, no medicine and so this is an indicator that medical services are not down there in the communities and it is a very big challenge to the government that we need to provide medical facilities and services to the people in the villages. People in Rushooka came as early as 5:00am. These people have not just gotten sick today, these people have been sick for years but they can’t go to hospital because they can’t afford medicine, therefore people need to be economically transformed and also have community health sensitization,” he stressed.
Emmy Mbarebaki, AMDA Member and Nyamitanga Parish Head of Laity also mentioned that as AMDA they have done several medical camps in other areas and numbers of the people are growing every other day.
“People are following us wherever we go, we are now in Ntungamo but we have been treating people from Mbarara, people from Buhweju, people from Ibanda among other districts because they heard the call and most of the people are making follow-ups. For us we treat a year, so when we treat them, we give them referral, like when we operate someone an eye, we say the second eye will be operated after this time so you go and contact those people, but the person doesn’t have money, they don’t have anything, one will stay with his eye, so when he or she hears that AMDA now has gone to Ntungamo, he will leave Buhweju where we left him and come to Ntungamo. So it is a challenge to the Government, the Government must take health as a first priority because people in the villages are suffering. The Government must look into what we call medical facilities and provide medical services with necessary equipment and logistics,” said Mbarebaki.
Naome Kabasharira, the Rushenyi County Member of Parliament said that the Government of Uganda has tried to work despite economic challenges. She applauded some organisations like AMDA for the generosity to render free services to the people. MP Kabasharira through lobbying, worked together with some members from Rushenyi new ERA who are also members of AMDA in ensuring that AMDA medical camp of 2024 is brought to Rushenyi County so that the people of this constituency can benefit as far health services are concerned.
“I will not say that its because the Government is not doing the work, but today at Rushooka why the number was big its because its free service, you know when its free service some of these people do not have enough income, sometimes they sit on some ailment, they don’t go to check with the Doctor. So now that they were told that there are doctors and specialists and as you know that it is rare to get a specialist you have to travel to look for them, but now specialists have come looking for our lower local people, so the number became big just because it is a free service and a good service too,” said MP Kabasharira.
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