RUKIGA:
A total of 38 nursing assistants in health centers in Rukiga district are set to be phased out of service in the 2023/2024 financial year.
The move to phase out nursing assistants from both public and private health service provision countrywide as a way to purportedly reduce maternal mortality rate was in November 2011 announced by the then Director-General of Health Services in the Ministry of Health, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, during a regional health marketing conference.
Dr Aceng announced that the move is also aimed at restructuring and reviving the health service provision in the country.
Again, during the release of the Uganda Nurses and Midwives results in January this year, the state minister for Higher Education, John Chrysostom Muyingo echoed that the decision was made based on advice given by different stakeholders from the Ministry of Education and health.

Now, during the district budget conference that was held at the district council hall Friday this week, the Rukiga district Health Officer Dr. Emmanuel Musiimenta said the phase out process has left the district hunting for 331 health officers to fix gaps in the health department.
Dr Musiimenta mentioned that, they currently have a deficit in health staffing of 82 health officers stressing that the 38 assistant nurses to be phased out, will leave the district in a deficit staffing of 120 health officers.
Dr. Musiimenta says the development will leave the district incapacitating with lack of manpower in the health sector which will affect service delivery.
Mbabazi Robert Kakwerere, the Rukiga district chairman LC5 said that some of the nurses to be phased out are still young worrying that they will be affected emotionally and economically.
Kakwerere retaliated district move to do what it takes as soon as possible to replace the yet to be phased nursing assistants for the continuity in health service delivery.
The Source Reports.
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