Annual report of the Medical Department / Uganda Protectorate.

  • Uganda Protectorate. Medical Department.
Date:
[1950]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Medical Department / Uganda Protectorate. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    others left the service without being able to qualify for licences to practise independently. At Mulago Hospital and Lira Training School, some of the male nursing staff refused to carry out normal nursing duties which they considered to be beneath their dignity and had to leave the department. It has become evident that two major factors which impede the develop¬ ment of the African branches of the service are alcohol and promiscuity. Although many members of the local staff carry out their duties with praise¬ worthy loyalty and devotion, it is essential that these two defects should be controlled if the African members of the department are to undertake the full responsibilities for which they are being trained. Medical education has been taken a step forward by the appointment of full-time heads of the clinical and pathological departments of Makerere College Medical School. These workers will be assisted by the present part-time lecturers drawn from Government medical staff, using material available at Mulago Hospital. It is confidently expected that these new arrangements will have a beneficial effect upon the standards of teaching and medical services, as well as increasing the amount of research work which can be carried out. A new system of stores allocation was worked out, with the object of improving the distribution of resources among the various units. Attention is also being given to problems connected with the introduction of an adequate costing system, bearing in mind the importance of using the available funds to the best advantage. In the United Kingdom, nearly £10 per head of population is being spent annually on medical services; almost the same proportion of Government revenue is provided in Uganda, but here this allows only Shs. 3 per head. A sound medical policy needs to be founded on an accurate knowledge of disease incidence, and such knowledge can only be obtained on the spot. To busy workers in hospitals or clinics, the furnishing of returns and the notification of illnesses is bound to appear an irksome imposition. But increasing populations require increasing assistance from central adminis¬ trations, and this assistance must be based on reliable information if it is to be effective. The introduction of some new recording methods during 1950 should provide a more accurate picture of the disease situation, and so help in the task of organising attacks upon it. Industrial developments such as those at Jinja and Tororo bring in their train sanitary dangers more pronounced than is usual in temperate climates. Newcomers to tropical conditions generally tend to overlook the need for meticulous attention to mosquito breeding, sanitary habits and the medical care of their staff, and have to learn afresh the lessons of past experience. It is a pleasure to record that satisfactory co-operation in their common task was established so soon between those responsible for the new projects and officers of this department. C. Distinguished Medical Visitors Nuffield Panel of Consultants Dr. N. Lloyd Rusby, a consultant in tuberculosis and chest diseases, spent three days at Mulago Hospital in August.