The Union of Nurses in Busia County is demanding the transfer of the chief officer of public health and sanitation Dr Susan Outa from the office.
According to their chairman Mr David Busolo poor governance and nepotism by the chief officer have contributed to poor services that are being experienced in the health sector in Busia County.
“We have discovered that there is a problem with service delivery in the health sector in Busia County because of poor governance in the Department of Health and Sanitation under the leadership of Dr Outa.”
Mr Busolo noted that as health workers they were happy with changes that had been communicated earlier over the reshuffles in the executive but later on they learned that the changes were not affected and instead the officer in question retained the same post as the chief officer in the department.
“We had appreciated the governor for doing wonderful work by doing the reshuffles in his cabinet and bringing another chief officer but later on we learned that the reshuffle was never effective and instead the chief officer in question retained the same position. This officer has been in the office for one year, she has not performed and we are wondering why to retain her in the same position in the same department,” paused Mr Busolo.
He revealed that as a result of poor services from the health department patients seeking medication at Busia County referral hospital are referred to private hospitals.
“When patients come to the referred hospital they are also referred to the neighboring private nursing homes due to poor health services at Busia County referral hospital which is very expensive to the patients in the current economic situation,” he revealed
He appealed to the Busia County governor to give the health department in Busia competent officers to help bring sanity to the sector.
“We are requesting the Busia governor Dr Paul Otuoma to give health workers people who are ready to work for them to serve the people of Busia,” he said
His sentiments were echoed by James Omusugut, the union spokesperson accusing Dr Outa of perpetrating corruption and nepotism in the health department.
“When the said officer was appointed as the chief officer in the Department of Public Health one year ago she removed the hospital administrator from the ‘Linda Mama account signatories and the reason was to make it easy for her to swindle money from the account.
This means that when pregnant mothers come to the hospital they are paid from their pocket because the money was is not there and that is not fair,” said Mr Omusugut
He warned that as members of the union, they may be forced to down their tools if the governor will not relocate Dr Outa to the other department.
“We are not ready to work with this officer as the chief officer. She has been in the office for one year but with little to show and if the governor does not make the changes as members of the union we will sit and let the members of the public suffer when they come to seek health services in our facilities,” he said
However, Busia County Secretary Mr John Juma challenged the unionists to table their concerns in written form through a memorandum to allow the county government to respond to them.
“The union has articulated the challenges they are facing to do with governance, administration, and working environment and I have advised them to structure out their grievances in the form of a memorandum because when we speak without a document such as a memorandum we will not have a structured engagement,” said Mr Juma
According to him, the discussions are going on to give room for conciliation between the said officer and the union to create a conducive working environment at Busia County Referral Hospital.
“Conciliation discussions are going on around some of the issues that they have come to present before me and so to that extent we may not go into many discussions,” he said.
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