Poor health service delivery in Paidha town council has been blamed on inadequate funding, low staffing and influx of patients from the Democratic Republic of Congo- DRC.
This emerged during a heated scientific Baraza organized by the office of the prime minister in Paidha Town council, Zombo District.
This is Paidha Town Council headquarters, and the activity in progress is a ground breaking scientific Baraza, organized by the Office of the prime minister, supported by the European Union, through the Development Initiative for Northern Uganda- DINU.
The essence of the meeting was to provide a platform for public accountability and information dissemination.
For Paidha Town Council, all developmental sectors, including Health, Roads, Education, production, water, community services and natural resources, emerged, but poor health service delivery was more critical.
Besides several achievements realized in the health department, Dr. Bramali Mark Bonny, the District Health Officer, Zombo, noted that out of the 27 million Shillings the town council budgeted for its residents, the per capita allocation for each person is only 2, 723 UGX, contrary to World Health Organisation’s minimum of 15,000 UGX.
Bramali appealed to government to consider a budget increment for the border districts due to the influx from neighboring countries.
Other burning issues included education and poor road networks which hinder communication within the town council.
Police wasn’t spared too for allegedly soliciting money from transporters.
The locals were also asked to embrace commercial farming to improve their livelihood, and warned against encroaching wetlands.
Meanwhile, Joseph Muserero, OPM’s Baraza Coordinator, promised to continue organizing scientific Barazas in accordance with Covid-19 guidelines.
While closing the Baraza, Kajoyingi Andrew, the Zombo RDC, applauded the Office of the Prime Minister & the Development Initiative for Northern Uganda- DINU for supporting government in improving service delivery in Zombo District.
Baraza is a Swahili word meaning “Veranda”, and is used in Uganda as a platform for transformative discussion and to facilitate participatory monitoring.