The right to health is not explicitly provided for in the Bill of Rights of the constitution of the Republic of Uganda. However, it contains a number of provisions with a bearing on health. The constitution enjoins the state to promote the social well-being of the people and in particular to ensure that all Ugandans enjoy rights and opportunities and access, amongst other things health services. The state is also enjoined to take all practical measures to ensure the provision of basic medical services to the population.
Though for many years, common medical practice meant that physicians made decisions for their patients, many countries have enacted separate laws to ensure that patients receive treatment consistent with the dignity and respect they deserve as human beings. Far from persecuting reckless medical workers and careless hospital administrators, the new law seeks to provide, at minimum, equitable access to quality medical care, ensuring patients’ privacy and the
So Enforcement of Patients and Health Workers’ Rights (EPHWOR), here thus comes to advocate and enforce for the realization of Patients and Health Workers Rights, women rights, sexual and reproductive health rights, enforce implementation of the local/international policies/laws on health, Lobby Donors’ funds locally and internationally to help women, Patients and empower Health Workers serve better as we Challenge both Government and Law makers to respect the right to health as a basis of human dignity.
confidentiality of their medical information, informing patients and obtaining their consent before employing a medical intervention, and providing a safe clinical environment.
However on the other hand, Health Workers are not solely blamed because Government has to some degree caused the problem by paying meager salaries to the health workers, failed to facilitate them with adequate tools, failure to increase on health workers patients ratio, failure to develop community structures for improved health education, promotion and disease prevention which all together, have always incapacitated health workers to effectively deliver health services as expected.
On the other hand, Donor Community is wide and with a lot of resources to save lives of patients as well as empowering Health Workers serve with a smile. However most top Government Health Officials never Lobby such Donors to fund the open gaps in health system but they just sit and wait for Salaries from the meagre resources/taxpayers’ money which have kept Uganda behind in in Development compared to other Countries like Kenya, South Africa etc where patients and health workers’ rights are recognized.