Bishop Given Wrong Medication From Kamwenge Clinic

http://ugandaradionetwork.com/a/story.php?s=55414

Clinics in Kamwenge district are on the spot for employing unqualified and incompetent personnel to treat patients.

In one such incident that happened three weeks ago, the Bishop of East Ruwenzori Diocese, Right Reverend Edward Bamucwanira, was prescribed wrong drugs from a clinic in Rukunyu Sub County, near Kamwenge town council. The bishop had to undergo another medication to treat the effects of wrong drugs. According to a source close to the Bishop, he had purchased the drugs from one of the clinics after complaining of headache.

The source further says the medical workers at the clinic just gave him the drug, even without first establishing what he was suffering from. Moments later, the Bishop started feeling drowsy and became unconscious.

The source however, declined to reveal the name of the clinic. Rukunyu has one private clinic and one drug shop apart from the government health centre III. When URN visited the area on Wednesday, the clinics, Rukunyu Drug Shop and His Mercy Clinic, were both closed, and our reporter could not establish whether Bishop Bamucwanira visited one of the two health facilities.

URN could not reach Bishop Bamucwanira himself, as he is reported out of the country.

In an interview with Uganda Radio Network, Grace Businge, a retired medical practitioner who attended to Bishop Bamucwanira after the incident three weeks ago, says that he could have been given multiple drugs which made him weak. Businge says that the medical personnel at the clinic should have first established what the Bishop was suffering from, before administering any drugs.

She says that clinics and drug shops should have a doctor who is supposed to treat the patient before any drugs are prescribed.

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According to Businge, patients who have been given drugs from the clinics should seek second opinion from a trained medical worker.

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Uganda Radio Network has also established from some residents that they have fallen victim to illegal clinics and dispensaries operating in the town.

Two months ago, 28 year old Mary Atwine, a resident of Kamwenge town council went to the clinic after feeling weak. Atwine told Uganda Radio Network that the medical workers at the clinic didn’t bother to find out what she was suffering from, but rushed to give her coartem tablets, thinking she was suffering from malaria.

Atwine says that when she reached home, her condition worsened until she was rushed to Fort Portal Referral Hospital. It was at the hospital that she was told by the medical workers that she had been given wrong medication.

Uganda Radio Network reporter saw some of the clinics and drug shops in Kamwenge town operating in bedrooms and incomplete structures

In a telephone interview, Steven Baguma, the National Drug Authority (NDA) western region inspector, says that some of the nurses employed in the clinics are not trained to treat people and have no idea about the medicine they prescribe to patients. He says that NDA plans to start a crack down on all illegal clinics and drug shops operating in the region.

 According to Baguma, some of the clinics and drug shops do not open during day time preferring to operate at night because they employ unqualified staff.

Last month, NDA closed more than 100 drug shops, pharmacies and clinics in Kampala because they were operating illegally.

In May 2011, a crackdown operation on private health service providers in Kampala found that over 70 per cent were operating illegally.  At least 117 clinics and drug shops were closed during the operation.

The joint operation by the Ministry of Health, the Joint Health Professionals Council and the Pharmaceutical Society of Uganda also found that most of the private clinics and drug shops were operating without qualified staff. The month-long operation surveyed at least 180 health units in Kawempe, Makindye, Nakawa, Rubaga and Kampala central divisions.