Community group mediates on illegal healthcare payments
Village budget club members in Kisiita Sub County in Kibaale stopped illegal payments made at Kisiita Health Center III for antenatal cards, child immunization cards and family planning services. |
The VBC member below displaying the
child health cards which the mothers had bought .
|
In
September 2012, Kisiita Village budget club members a grassroots community group
mobilized by FOWODE to monitor service delivery for improved gender
accountability monitored Kisiita Health
Centre III to examine the quality of service delivery. Being an immunization
day, the center was busy; however they met the health center personnel and also
held discussions with patients to review their levels of satisfaction with the
services provided at this Health Center. During these interactions the club
members learnt that women in this community always pay a fee to acquire child
immunization cards, antenatal cards and family planning services. In fact on
this very day, many mothers had been turned away and their children had not
been immunized because they did not have Ugshs 1000 for an immunization card.
This forced the members to immediately contact the Kibaale District Health
Officer who affirmed that such payments are unauthorized because these are free
government services.
With
that assurance, the members then contacted the in charge of Kisiita Health Center
to explain why they make women pay for free government services. In response,
the in charge stated that although this was a common practice at the health
center, it was never endorsed by authorities of the health center. He further
noted that staff collected money from patients but never declared it to the
authorities.
In
order to resolve this issue, the Village Budget Club members quickly organized
a meeting with the personnel at the health center and two resolutions were made
in this meeting. One was that the health center immediately stops charging
these illegal fees so that every woman and child visiting this health center
receives free health services i.e. immunization, antenatal care and family
planning services. The other resolution was to refund money to all women who
had paid for the immunization cards that day, even those who had earlier been
denied the service were called back and their children were immunized.
Mother’s registering with VBC members to claim the money paid for an immunisation
card from the Health centre personnel
A
formal report on this incident was subsequently presented to the Kibaale
District Health Officer by the village budget club members urging his office to
intervene. They made three follow up visits to assess if changes were being
implemented. On the first visit the
women complained they were being neglected by health personnel, this
necessitated the Village budget club members to approach the sub county chief asking
him to talk to the health center personnel about their conduct. By the third
follow up visit there were more than 90 clients who had brought their children
for immunization, no mother had paid any money and the personnel were working
well. An official response is yet to be
presented to the Village budget club members from the District Health Officer
but the change witnessed at the health center where women and children access
free health services suggests that district and sub-county leadership took
action on the concerns of the community presented by village budget club members.
As
told by TinnerAreeba, FOWODE Field Officer Kibaale District.
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