Press your leaders for better health services – minister (Daily Monitor (Uganda))

Kampala. State Minister for the Elderly and Disabled Sulaiman Madada has castigated Ugandans for failing to hold accountable those responsible for delivering health services to them.
Mr Madada said there is a need to empower communities to play an active role in demanding better service delivery from their leaders.
“Despite government efforts through different programmes to improve the people’s wellbeing, such services have failed to be implemented at lower levels,” he said.

Locals blamed
The minister also blamed the communities for not doing much at an individual level to fight hygiene related illness, which he said are costly to treat.
He was speaking in Kampala last week at the closure of the health symposium organised by the Coalition for Health Promotion and Social Development (HEPS Uganda), an advocacy group.
Mr Sam Enginyu, a Ministry of Health educator, echoed the minister’s views.
“We admit people need more health facilities but they have to play a more active role in advocating better service delivery, especially in the health sector, which has made it hard for their problems to be heard,” said Mr Enginyu.

Purpose
The health symposium was organised to discuss how slum dwellers can be involved in drafting the national and post-2015 Millennium Development Goals.
Mr Kenneth Muhonge, the advocacy officer at HEPs-Uganda, said: “From the surveys we conducted in slum areas, we have discovered that poor sanitation is poverty-driven as residents in these areas cannot even afford to construct simple pit latrines and instead opt for polythene bags for defecating.”

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