The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | An operation by a team of officials from the Allied Medical Professional Council has netted 13 quack medical practitioners in Lira district. The two-day operation targeted private clinics and medical laboratories.
The officials assessed the registration status, condition of the facilities and kind of services that are given to clients. Most of the people found in the facilities were unqualified and offered services meant to be offered by professionals at a registered facility.
The suspects were found working as doctors and nurses, laboratory assistants while others were found in possession of government drugs clearly labeled “GOVERNMENT OF UGANDA NOT FOR SALE.”
At Comboni medical center in Teso-bar, Lira city East division, a school dropout was found on duty. He claimed to have stepped in for his mother, an enrolled midwife.
Several patients were found on drip. He was arrested together with his mother who had followed the team after hearing about the operation.
St. Ronald Medical and Laboratory Services was found operating in a 4×6 single-roomed house. The room which is partitioned by plywood has a laboratory and admission room, as well as a bedroom and kitchen for the owners.
Ronald Alyao, a registered laboratory technician together with his wife, an enrolled nurse were arrested despite their pleas of having just started the clinic.
This wasn’t any different at St. Damian Medical Clinic and Laboratory Services at Odokomit trading center in Lira city West where a nursing assistant identified as Teddy Acheng was found treating two patients admitted at the facility.
Acheng who argued that she had worked there for only a month managed to disappear before she could be arrested. The owner identified as Ambrose Okello, a laboratory assistant couldn’t be traced either. The facility was locked and a microscope taken as exhibit.
Acheng was arrested on the second day of the operation when she was found operating the same clinic which had been closed the previous day. At Christ Family Care Clinic and Laboratory Services, two people including a nursing assistant and medical laboratory trainee who claimed to be on internship were arrested.
They were the only people found running tests on samples collected from two patients found there. Charles Nahabwe Kaahwa, the National Quality Assurance Officer in charge of diagnostic services at the Allied Health Professional Council explained that Lango sub-region has a number of private medical facilities which are operated by unqualified people.
According to him, the suspects will be charged with a host of crimes and appear before court.
Innocent Okello, the focal person for Allied Health Professional Council in Lango sub-region revealed that most of the suspects were advised and warned but they were adamant.
Allied Health Professional Council is a regulatory body under the Ministry of Health. It is charged with regulating training and practice of Allied health professionasl and other related matters for purposes of protecting the public from harmful and unethical practices.
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