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Day June 29, 2011

Entries 4 Total

MULAGO ENGULFED IN ANOTHER CONTROVERSY

Jun 29, 11 2:34 PM

Uganda’s biggest referral hospital Mulago Hospital is embroiled in yet another controversy. A woman in her mid twenties was last week operated on a recommendation of a Doctor after complaining of labour pains, but only to find an empty womb.

It beats my understanding how a doctor could have sanctioned a Caesarian operation, without checking to confirm whether the woman was in labour. The woman whose identity I will not reveal for some obvious reasons is a resident of Kibuye, a Kampala suburb. She checked in at the hospital on Friday 17, June, complaining of labour pain. She was admitted but could not deliver through normal procedures. She was reportedly rushed to the theater for a C-Section. After the operation, Nabukenya was admitted in ward 5B to heal from her wounds but without a baby.

The lady herself was puzzled by the fact that she had labour pains, but was found without a baby.

Nobody including the Executive Director of Mulago hospital Dr. Baterana Byaruhanga is willing to comment on this matter. When contacted Dr Byaruhanga referred the matter to his deputy Dr. Doreen Birabwa who on her part could not pick her phone.

And the Public Relations Officer, Mulago Referral Hospital, Dan Kimosho said the matter was beyond him and insisted the issue be handled at a level of the directors.

Surprising a staff at the ward where she was admitted said a scan test was done on her after the operation and not before.

The matter is likely to raise more questions on how a person can come into the hospital with labour pain and get operated without any pre-scan done to establish the problem they are going through.

Mulago Hospital is the national referral hospital but has had numerous complaints of poor quality service arising out of low morale, inadequate staffing, mismanagement and under-funding.

SAM KAYIWA

Comments (3)

The Media should help in fighting the stigma towards Mental Health

Jun 29, 11 10:59 AM

Folks:

The problem of mental illness in Uganda needs to be tackled head on, but with the sensitivity it demands and deserves. The west embraced de-institutionalization of mental patients as the medical model of disability came under attack. Out was the medical model, in was the social model of dealing with mental illness.

The best case study which is often cited as the best model is Sweden where services for those suffering from mental illness have been integrated which is why there are hardly an individuals with mental illness who are homeless which is more or less the norm in the USA: those homeless black brothers you see on the mean streets of USA cities are most likely to be veterans of various American wars. USA abandons them the moment their contribution is done. Imagine that. Individuals with serious mental problems due to the trauma suffered in war being abandoned. And African-American brothers top the list.

Back to Uganda where I suspect those in need of mental treatment are underestimated or fear seeking help due to the stigma attached to mental illness.It may take prominent women and men coming forward to share their personal experiences with mental illness like it took the late Mr Philip Bongoley Lutaaya (RIP) to confront HIV/AIDS. The idea of having famous Ugandans embrace the cause of mental illness is great. Let the media take the lead.

In Uganda, I assume the medical model is still dominant, which needs to change towards the social model. But things should be done without ‘abandoning’ individuals with mental illness as is the case in the USA. They have been abandoned by psychiatrists who left them to PhD holders in clinical psychology. Then the state abandoned them to by closing mental institutions without doing what Sweden did: integrating service delivery which is critical under the social/community model.

Now given Uganda’s traumatic history, what is the state of mental illness in the country?

QN: does Uganda give priority to individuals with mental illness in terms of allocating them the limited social housing-if left?

For Uganda, the language ought to change from calling them ‘mad’ to people suffering from mental illness. Language matters. So let us media friends in UAH take notice and do the needful: they can help change perceptions about mental illness in Uganda. NO MORE “MAD” but mental illness. Is that asking too much from the editors? The media is supposed to be an agent of change and it can change attitudes about mental illness.

UK is way behind compared to other developed countries in dealing with mental health. The problem now is that the pendulum has swang too much towards the social model that you have individuals with mental illness who are not able to take their proper medication because there is no one to remind them or help them take it. The best place is Sweden where integration has delivered effective services. The other day I met chap from Egypt who needed help and was was in his hospital attire and was trying to tell me that he was on his way to Cairo. The fellow needed help to take his medication. But since he is not a threat to anyone or himself, he is let loose on the street. that is cruel.

I am actually surprised that in the UK, the medical model is still supreme. It was in Europe where Foucault did a lot more to expose the power imbalance in metal institutions. Actually the UK has some of the leading scholars in disability studies like Dr Oliver who have written great stuff. How can it be so behind?

Yes, Sweden is the best in the world in mental health services! Why? It has integrated services. Why is that important? Because individuals with mental illness get the housing they need within their community and the medical support to go along. They also enjoy subsidized services. Sweden has embraced the social model and put its money there.

In the USA, psychiatrists ‘abandoned’ mental patients-it is called the abandonment thesis and is controversial. Basically, the claim is that psychiatrists gave up on their most vulnerable patients once de-institutionalization took place and mental hospitals hut down. It created space for clinical psychologists and social workers to move in.

In Uganda the need is huge because of the historic trauma the country has witnessed. Many individuals need help but they cannot access services. Ugandans prefer escapism that it is ‘mayembe/voodo/juju’/misambwa’
BTW, historical trauma is generational and the sooner Ugandans dealt with it the better.

Kyijomanyi. W.B
USA

Comments (1)

Interesting quotes in Uganda under President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni

Jun 29, 11 10:42 AM

By Samuel Makokha W’Mugeni on Monday, April 19, 2010 at 12:22am

1. In an address to the mourners at the burial of NRA/UPDF commander Brig Chefe Ali, at Burungi, Kazo, in Mbarara district, President Museveni’s younger brother and one time Presidential Advisor on Defense and commander of the Reserve Force (RF), Maj. Gen. Caleb Akandanaho aka Salim Saleh, eloquently told them that “If it was not for Brigadier Chefe Ali, (Eriya Mwine) no UPC or Acholi would be alive” (see “Chefe saved UPCs, Acholi – Saleh” Mornitor 14 July 1999).

2. “The rebels attacked us (NRA soldiers) at a place called Corner Kilak 20 miles South of Kitgum (Town). They came in while singing and shouting; our people (NRA) massacred those chaps. They approached our troops frontally. This gave us a very good chance because they exposed themselves; so on Sunday (January 24, 1987) we surrounded them and massacred them. We massacred them very badly. (Standard – Nairobi – January 21, 1987)

3. “Our role is to wipe out insecurity … if we have to eliminate those chaps by force, we will do it”. (Daily Nation – Nairobi – January 26, 1987)

4. “I don’t know about torture. I have educated myself on many things but on torture I have not known the boundary between what is torture and what isn’t torture. I know the NRA tie these people (rebels, etc.) when they catch them. They tie their hands backwards. I am now being told that is torture. It is the traditional method. (Daily Nation – Nairobi – January 26, 1987)

5. “I don’t think we are destroying people’s crops. We are destroying rebel crops and stores.” (Daily Nation – Nairobi – January 26, 1987)

6. “The soldiers feel that the Police are not serious with the criminal elements and that they are corrupt. The army had to come in and insist that criminals must be punished. It happens in all countries, there is a time when the army assumes the duty of internal security”. (Daily Nation – Nairobi – January 26, 1987)

7. “What is the Geneva Convention on wars! I have never read it”. (TV Panorama Programme of the BBC, March 1986)

8. “In the areas which have been disturbed people are living cordially with the Security Forces. In areas like Gulu people are living peacefully. There is scrupulous respect of human rights”. (Daily Nation – Nairobi – January 26, 1987)

9. “You see when you give them (civil population in the North and East) a good beating then those who are using them will no longer use them. Since the month of January (1987), we have given them much beating especially in Lira and Kitgum Districts. And in fact the week I left (for Yugoslavia) we had given them a good blow in Gulu District. So it is going to settle down”. (New Vision, January 19, 1987).

10. the Ugandan weekly newspaper, Shariat (Vol. II No.15, April 15-21, 1998), quoted President Yoweri Museveni as having said that: “As Hitler did to bring Germany together, we should also do it here. Hitler was a smart guy, but I think he went a bit too far by wanting to conquer the world.” He repeated the same statement on April 4, 1997, when addressing the East African Law Society (see “Watch Out, M-7, Uganda is Unkind to Dictators” The East African, Monday, June 9, 2003).

11. “Our work is to kill these people,” Monitor March 28, 2004

12. “We have not yet punished ‘them’ enough.”

13. “We shall make ‘them’ become like the ensenene insects; you know what happens when you trap them in a bottle and close the lid.”

14. “We have massacred them; we mowed them down.”

15. “Let them go and eat grass, mangoes, and lizards.”

16. ‘‘They’ are backward and primitive.”

17. “You wait and see, we shall teach ‘them’ a lesson from which ‘they’ will never recover.”

18. “‘Those people’ are swine.”

19. “Yes, we are killing off the ‘anyanya,’ they are not Ugandans”.

20. “The chauvinism of the Acoli has to be destroyed.”

21. “Do you want to pamper these killers?”

22. “If we don’t catch them, we shall kill them, … These bandits are not able to permanently engage us because they will be wiped out. Now that they have invited us, I think they are going to find out that it was not a wise decision.”

23. “I don’t think we are destroying people’s crops. We are destroying rebel crops and stores.”

24. “I don’t know about torture. I have educated myself on many things but on torture I have not known the boundary between what is torture and what isn’t torture. I know the NRA tie these people (rebels, etc.) when they catch them. They tie their hands backwards. I am now being told that is torture. It is the traditional method.”

24. “Our role is to wipe out insecurity … if we have to eliminate those chaps by force, we will do it.”

Comments (1)

Kazibwe Has always been in the Company of Male Friends since Medical school

Jun 29, 11 10:28 AM

Dr Speciosa Wandira Kazibwe

Guys, why can’t you give Doctor Specioza Kazibwe, a break! Why can’t you give her a benefit of your doubt by simply putting to mind that she may be speaking her mind, first and foremost as a medical doctor and as a woman who first got married not as am old woman but not as a very young woman either.

Dr. Kazibwe, from the time i have known her since her early days at MUK, has always been in the company of males as her friends. Very rarely, would one find her for example walking from her lecture room to old Mulago, where she would go for her clinicals every so often, with female colleagues. She was always in the company of fellow male students with particular reference to one individual whom, for the sake of protecting individual privacy, i will not mention the name of the medical doctor she always walked with back and from Mulago hospital.

Why am i saying all this? It is not because i have anything to gain out of her private or political life, after all, i have never been and i will probably never be an NRM-zero sympathizer, but it concerns me when people start making up issues out of nothing and sometimes attacking individuals they really don’t know apart from reading about them in papers.

The good doctor, has always been as public and open minded as she could be. Starting with her DP mobilization crusades in the early eighties then later as Minister in Museveni’s regime up to when she became VP and back to private life.

Her encounter and vast knowledge about men issues is part of her training as a medical doctor and more so because of the fact that she has more male friends than she does with women. And before you make more nasty conclusions, the male friends i am talking about were and possibly are still just that. Male friends. Let no man tell me that ne cannot have an opposite sex as a mere friend. If one can’t do it, there are many who can and Specioza, happens to be one.

So, when she freely talks about male issues, like smelly socks, she knows what she is talking about, because she has been around many of them. When she talks about male circumcision, she knows that very well because, she has probably seen many “rotten” ones – as a medical doctor! Hon. Miria-Matembe, used to talk about such things even as far s recommending that penises deserved to be chopped off!

When she talks about “A mega hole” she probably has one which is absolutely a normal. Is it it abnormal for a man to have a long tool? Was it good for her to announce to the world about herself in that format? May be not. But again, how honest can one be when lousy, senseless men keep talking about a woman and accusing her of being a “sexual deviant” when she is as normal and truthful with herself?

Kamugisha Joseph
USA

Comments (2)
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