Dr. Elijah Ssemaganda, the Acting Assistant Director at the State House Health Monitoring Unit has cautioned members of the public against visiting unregistered, unlicensed health facilities saying the services offered could be substandard and unsafe.
Dr. Ssemanda noted that there a number of mushrooming clinics, drug shops, laboratories, and medical centers, where the proprietors are offering unsafe health services to unsuspecting individuals.
He said the law requires all laboratories and health facilities to be registered and licensed by the Allied Health Professional’s Council of Uganda, “but some (health facilities) are reluctant.”
He asked the public to be vigilant, check licenses and certificates of the health facilities before procuring treatment from health centres.
“Check and make sure that the place you are seeking health care services from carries a license as well as the health worker should be licensed and this is required by law to be displayed. So if you suspect as a keen Ugandan that you’re having a quack laboratory, I would advise you to straightaway call the health monitoring unit, and we shall act,” he said.
He asked Ugandans to partner with the unit and expose the culprits, operating illegal health centers.
He made the remarks at the launch of a modern testing facility at Supreme laboratories, in Kibuli, Kampala, where he said the Unit is excited to be receiving yet another partner with modern technology in the healthcare sector.
The facility comprises of cutting edge technology fully supported by Aid Genomics Israel, an International conglomerate of medical technology companies specializing in the diagnosis and therapy of cancer and infectious diseases.
It will offer tests such as PCR STI panels, Pneumonia PCR Tests, Herpes Simplex Virus PCRs, Cancer Tumor markers among others.
