PacificBookReview
Author Olive Kobusingye explores the healthcare system of Uganda throughout the decades by giving eye-opening and honest stories about various doctors and patients. The vivid history shines a light on the struggles, sacrifices, and chaos, that medical students faced as they become doctors within a corrupt government and health care system. In this story of resilience and survival, Kobusingye highlights stories throughout decades that span the sixties to the millennial, where you’re introduced to political corruption, what doctors sacrifice, and a society that came undone. Each decade delves further into the fight every doctor and patient faced under a failing system and exploitation.
The book provides a thorough history of the health care system in Uganda through stories that Kobusingye uses to showcase the need for reform. Chronilized into different events with specific themes that occurred in Uganda’s history which take readers throughout the sweet and sour sixties, scary seventies, enigmatic eighties, nutty nineties, and mucky millennial. The sixties include powerful stories about the life of Dr. Emmanuel Lumu who became the first Ugandan Minister of Health at Independence, the national health strategy, the opening of the New Mulago Hospital, the growing political tensions, and the purging of the Cabinet. Dr. Lumu’s plan for a 600-bed hospital in each of the four-regional headquarters, the trials of Dr. Kibukamusoke, and researching surrounding endomyocardial fibrosis. Kobusingye weaves together terrifying political and government accounts and the impact on hospitals as so many doctors lived in fear for their lives.
The eighties delve further into the stress medical students endured and the terror inflicted upon doctors at the hands of the military with a notable look at D’Arbela as he was rumored with supplying medication to NRA rebels, the fear Dr. Obache and Dr. Kanyerezi faced, and the fugitive lifestyle that Dr. Olweny went through to survive. Each of these names and others are several voices that impacted healthcare, lived in fear, and were incredible inspirations. Several of these voices Kobusingye incorporates photos of which provide faces to these emotional and poignant tales. The nineties explore the chaos of the Accident and Emergency Department as you go inside the intense routines medical workers went through daily and how overstretched they were attempting to care for patients. The millennial chapter touches upon the terror of the Ebola crisis and the risk of medical workers while also sharing about the rise of HIV and AIDS.
The Patient: Sacrifice, Genius, and Greed in Uganda’s Healthcare System is an incredible and educational resource which is well-organized and provides a thorough arrangement of information through documents, photos, and research. The book weaves through the decades with each one introducing important names and stories that delve inside the health care system. The armed conflict that Uganda has experienced has directly changed the healthcare system which Kobusingye educates through a thoughtful tone. Kobusingye delivers an important and timely read through The Patient which delivers a powerful lesson in Ugandan history, an unapologetic look at the healthcare system, and gives a voice to several amazing stories of sacrifice and bravery.
book review by Barbara Bamberger Scott
"The doctors and nurses had to put on brave faces, and to continue to reassure thepatients that they were doing all they could..."
A former surgeon at Mulago Hospital in Uganda, author and educator Kobusingye offersa chronicle of that country’s social history and medical developments set against abackdrop of contrasts. Young people wishing to study medicine attend Makerere University, where the authorstudied, and take internships and possibly practice for longer terms at Mulago, the large, nearby facility. The twoinstitutions have grown side by side, weathered many changes of policy, and experienced gradual improvementsover the past 50-plus years. The author views these sister facilities through the eyes of the many patients andmedical practitioners who have passed through their doors. The dramatic case histories constructed here areoften disturbing, revealing in the gripping experiences of caregivers and sufferers alike the healthcarediscrepancies that still exist in Uganda between the small minority of the privileged and the vast majority of thecountry’s rural poor.
Kobusingye meshes her own experience with that of others through interviews with medical personnel andprofessorial staff who, like herself, were and are affected by the changes in the facilities and their stated purposeover the years. Their recollections are interspersed in the narrative, which also includes quotations from officialdocuments such as UN and UNICEF reports and Ugandan policy statements. The timeframe begins whenUganda gained its independence and offers reminders of the intense health crises suffered there, from AIDS tothe Ebola virus. Though conditions for treatment for the poorest citizens have improved, there are still seriousproblems that need to be addressed. Kobusingye reveals historic milestones, setbacks, governmental progress,and inevitable frustrations, melding hard history with her colleagues’ personal, vividly depicted vignettes. Herhighly detailed, well-researched work takes a heroic stance and is a sincere effort to communicate to the worldthe critical needs and seemingly indomitable spirit of the Ugandan people.
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