The Pharmaceutical Society of Uganda (PSU) has sharply criticized the government over its prolonged failure to recruit pharmacists across all districts, warning that unstaffed positions are fueling fatal medication errors during routine public health outreaches.
The rebuke comes in the wake of a tragic incident in Butebo District, where a child died and roughly 25 others required urgent hospitalization after receiving mismatched medications at Kabwangasi Health Centre III. The affected children, who were participating in a community health outreach, were mistakenly administered Carbamazepine-an anticonvulsant medication-instead of the intended deworming drug, Mebendazole. The surviving children were rushed to neighboring health facilities for emergency stabilization.
Addressing the tragedy, Dr. Stephen Lutoti, the Secretary of the Pharmaceutical Society of Uganda, revealed that the Butebo disaster marks the second similar medical failure in just seven months, following a related incident in March 2026. He stressed that the swift recurrence highlights deep-seated, systematic gaps in how pharmaceuticals are handled and distributed during field operations.
“We have a structure in public service that has been approved, but this structure remains largely on paper; it’s unfilled,” Dr. Lutoti stated. “Most districts are operating without pharmacists and so, we shall continue seeing many of these things if the government does not intervene and prioritize the recruitment of pharmacists.”
To prevent further casualties, PSU is urging the Ministry of Health and local government authorities to enforce strict supervisory protocols. The society recommends that any medical outreach handling pharmaceutical supplies be accompanied by a dedicated pharmacist and a pharmacy technician tasked with conducting mandatory double-checks on medicine names, labels, and dosages both at central stores and in the field.
“Managing patients is teamwork, so any outreach that involves medicines, there must be a pharmacist in order to ensure that medicines are properly managed from the store, the dispensing points, and interacting with other members of the healthcare teams during such exercises,” Dr. Lutoti added.
In response to the Kabwangasi Health Centre III incident, the Society has demanded immediate corrective measures from health authorities, including a comprehensive line listing of all affected children, the preservation of remaining drug samples for forensic verification, specialized supportive care in consultation with pediatric specialists, the activation of national pharmacovigilance tracking, and a full independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the fatal error.