Local or foreign medical facilities, the patients dilemma

I read your article in the New Vision and it came at a time when I was thinking of how to get this message back to you. You have established probably one of the best hospitals in the country and you know with our African culture because you are a “muzungu” your facilities are expected to be good. I agree with you on the matter Uganda developing its own medical facilities so as not to spend unnecessary and unavailable resources abroad. I guess we are too poor a country to do that. What is the cause? Why do Ugandans send their loved ones abroad? I think there are 3 major reasons; absence of facilities, absence of necessary skills and absence of commitment, poor management and wrong attitude on our part as Ugandans both doctors and patients. I know many people are trying to make a contribution to improve the first two including yourself. 

The biggest challenge is the absence of national goals on health, a strategy to achieve them, absence of resources and the will to do even for the little resources that we have However the third one is a major problem and this is what I want to address in this article. Recently my brother in law had an accident and my sister knowing IHK was one of the best brought him to IHK. He had a double fracture on his leg. Let me fast forward, after 2 months the leg got amputated in India thanks to the third reason in our medical facilities. When my brother in law was admitted in IHK, it took 5 days to take him to the theater for an operation. In the meantime the doctors put a plaster on his leg that had not only frustrated the leg but had an internal bleeding. I guess some veins had burst. Forgive my choice of words. I am not very sure what happened but you are the doctor, you will know. While waiting for the operation, a blood clot moved from the injured part of the leg towards the heart. He was put on oxygen and finally the doctors discovered that he had a blood clot moving in his body. What could have happened you must know very well as a doctor. When he was operated I gather who did the operation not only brought the wrong size of “nails” but left out something possibly screws or whatever it is. I hadn’t paid very much attention because I know they were under very good care. They re-operated him after sometime. He developed other complications and returned to hospital. And a family friend/doctor who was visiting him found that the patient had been neglected and had been told he would be operated after 6 days. That is when we took the decision to take him to India. At the end of it all we have someone without a limb and over 60million shillings in medical bills. 

Thank God he still has a life. All this happened under your watchful eye. Is it possible you have been entirely Ugandalised? You run an institution and don’t pay attention to details? I don’t think that should be the case. If we were mindful about our work as individuals this should not have happened.