Amuria health officers arrested over absenteeism

AMURIA - The State House Health Monitoring Unit, in conjunction with the Police, has arrested two Amuria district medical officers over absenteeism.

Asamuk Health Centre III laboratory assistant Dr Ismael Opolot and Abraham Okiror, an enrolled nurse at the same facility, later recorded statements at Amuria Central Police Station.

Unit assistant director Dr Stephen Ataro Oyella, on August 21, 2025, said he ordered the arrest of the two health workers due to records showing that they were absent, yet they are on the Government payroll.

“There are records of their defiance and previous difficult characters. As such, they defrauded the Government, for example, working for four days a month, six days, five days a month, yet you're being paid a salary, contrary to Public Service Standing Order 2021,” Ayella said. 

Ayella, together with his team, has been monitoring health facilities of Amuria, and in their work, they assessed the services according to the health ministry guidelines.

“Now, when we reached Asamuk Health Centre III, we found the service delivery was poor at the facility. We found Opolot had locked the laboratory and gone away to Kumi district with the keys, denying people the services that they should get,” Ayella said.

Opolot, who is a medical doctor by training, was recruited as a laboratory assistant for Asamuk health center III.

Acting district health officer Godfrey Opolot said cases of absenteeism among health workers in the 24 health facilities in Amuria have not been formally lodged at his office, but he keeps hearing them casually.

"No formal complaint has been brought forward to my office, except we hear them as rumours, but what the State House team has done today is an opener to us all,” Opolot said.

Dr Stephen Ayella addressing health workers of Amuria after he ordered for the arrest of two medical workers. (Credit: Godfrey Ojore)

Ayella accused the suspects, who by press time were still recording statements from the Police, of causing financial loss to the Government, abuse of office, and insubordination.

The State House team has been in Teso conducting a number of checks in the health facilities. On Tuesday, they held an on-the-spot supervision exercise at Soroti Regional Referral Hospital.

The impromptu visit was initiated following multiple complaints received by the unit concerning the state of health service delivery at the hospital.

After the arrest of the two medical workers, Ayella held a refresher training with the medics of Amuria district on labor management.

“Monitoring maternal death and perinatal death is a key indicator. Mothers, when they come to deliver, pregnancy is not a disease; they are supposed to deliver and go back healthy. But if the process of labour is not well monitored, then the mothers can easily die,” Ayella said.

“So, we found out that the tool used for monitoring labour, called the portogram, is not properly filled, especially for mothers who are nearing delivery. They just write on its second stage and don't plot anything. Yet there are things to be monitored every 30 minutes, every hour, and so on. So, we collected all those tools, brought them and showed them to them, and we went through the process of managing labour through a continuing medical education (CME) session,” he explained. 

Opolot, the acting DHO, welcomed the team for offering his team a fresher and promised to comply on doing what is required of them.