A group of people living with HIV in Sheema District has written to the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Health Diana Atwine expressing fear of losing life very soon since they no longer have access to their medicine from Health Center IV in the Municipality.
They accuse the current Member of Parliament Hon Elioda Tumwesigye of using his position as NRM district chairperson and Minister of Science and Innovation to divert the Antiretroviral Drugs- ARVs from government hospital to his his private owned facility Bushenyi Medical Center (BMC).
Below is a complaint we obtained which was received by PS Diana on Thursday, 23RD July 2020.
RE: COMPLAINT ON THE VIOLATION OF THE RIGHT TO HEALTH
The above captioned matter refers in which we act for our clients whose names we shall not disclose for fear of stigmatization.
Our clients are HIV positive patients living in Sheema District in Sheema Municipality.
Our clients have informed us that for the past undetermined period they have found it difficult to access their Antiretroviral Drugs- ARVs.
Out clients state that the incumbent member of parliament of Sheema Municipality Hon. Elioda Tumwesigye a doctor by profession while using his position as the NRM party District Chairperson and Minister of Science Technology and Innovations converted the transfer of the ARVs from the Health Centre IV Sheema Municipality to his private clinic known as Bushenyi Medical Centre -BMC.
His private clinic BMC is located a long distance away from the villages compared to the Health Centre IV which has made it much more difficult for them to access the drugs especially with this covid 19 pandemic.
Further, our clients inform us that on a daily basis, the Minister Hon. Elioda Tumwesigye and his agent are using his position to intimidate and threaten the patients that they will not have access to the drugs it they do not vote for him in the coming NRM primaries which as directed by the NRM electoral commission will be by lining up behind the desired candidate.
We totally believe that these are free government drugs onto which patients should not be held at ransom to receive. This evidence is available especially for the patients that he threatened in the last campaign and continues to threaten to-date.
These actions are legally wrung and affect the health of our dims they also , against the spirit of The 1995 Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, other national and international instruments that provide for the right to health as a fundamental human right and in the end resulting into a violation of the right to life which is a non derogable right.
In the premise we seek the intervention of your office to prevail against Hon Elioda Tumwesigye and all his employees at Bushenyi Medical Center to ensure that the ARV drugs are sent to Sheema Municipality health center IV for easy access by our clients and also ensure that his actions are restrained.
We also pray that your kind office releases a press statement that the drugs have been put at the Health Center IV and our clients can go and access them from there.
