In March 2016, I lost my
grandmother at one of the private health facilities in Kampala city. My
grandmother was 87 years old at the time of her death. According to the
hospital report, she died due to severe anemia. Like many other traditional
women, my grandmother never sought medical attention early at the feeling of an
ailment. Very often, she would inform
anybody who cared that she was week but would be well soon. At some point she
started giving excuses of her advanced age as the reason for her ailing nature.
For a long period of time, she stayed sickly but moving on with her chores.
But once in awhile, my
grandmother sought medical attention. This was mostly whenever the pain in her constantly
aching legs and back was severe. She would walk slowly (okushotooka) to local health facility. During most of such visits,
the health care workers would confirm my grandmother’s belief that the aching
of her legs and back were due to her old age. She would receive regular painkillers and go back to her house. This
would lead her to stay in the ‘comfort’
of her pain well knowing that it was as a result of old age.
Much as it was not entirely
permitting to her will, my grandmother was convinced to come to Kampala for
specialized care at the end of last year. According to all specialists who
attended to her, my grandmother would have been better off seeking early
medical attention. It dawned on her and all of us who were close to her that
the cause her continuous nature was not old age at all. She had a disease
killing her slowly. She sought special medicating very late.
The experience of my grandmother
at the local health care facility upcountry is strange to many. In Uganda,
there are few medical specialists in geriatric care. Given the high patient to
doctor ratio, the majority of patients at lower health units are attended to
by Nurses. In fact some simple privately ‘clinics’ are managed by poorly
trained or not formally qualified medical personnel. Even where there are qualified personnel at
lower government health facilities, they are often overwhelmed by the high
number of patients and lack of constant medical supplies. Such circumstances
hinder medics from having adequate time and conscience to attend to unique
conditions that for example affect the elderly.
The recently released results of
the November 18, 2014 National Population and housing Census showed an improved
life expectancy to above 63 years. This means that more Ugandans can now leave
longer and therefore the percentage of aging population will increase greatly
in coming years. The statistics also showed a high age dependency ratio at
103%. According to the World Bank working definition, age dependency ratio is
the ratio of dependents of people younger than 15 or older than those of
working ages of 15-64 years. The Uganda Burual Of statistics also showed that
8% of the children in the country were orphaned. Just like children bellow the
age of 5 years, it is common knowledge that the elderly face a high incidence
of disease and require continuous medical attention.
Without better systems
established to support the elderly, the ‘burden’
of caring for them rests on the younger, working population. However, the
working population naturally have the ultimate responsibility of their own
children and sustaining the state through paying taxes. Such a scenario would
literary leave some elderly people neglected to languish in suffering. There is
need to integrate programs like geriatric care into the public health system in
Uganda.
