By Eriah Lule
From 6am to 6pm, one can’t fail to notice Dr. Nakiriba Rhoda Mayega within the in-patient Paediatric Wing (children’s ward) at Mengo Hospital, a private, faith-based teaching facility in Kampala, Uganda.
As many embraced medicine as a career, for Mayega it was more. She holds it as a deeper calling with the passion to both heal the sick and to pass on her 10 years of medicine experience as a lecturer within the Uganda Christian University (UCU) School of Medicine (SoM). During her 12-hour days, five days a week, she can be seen with patients and SoM students at what many call Namirembe Hospital, which was founded by Sir Albert Ruskin Cook, a British medical missionary in Uganda.
Growing up as a young girl, Mayega excelled in science, leaving her at a crossroads of being either an engineer or a doctor. The late Richard Wabwire, her former sciences teacher at Trinity College Nabbingo, an all-girls boarding school, counseled her to lean further toward medicine.
Having finished her Bachelor in Medicine and Bachelor in Surgery at Makerere University, she did an internship at Mulago National Referral Hospital in 2009. As a trainee doctor in an emergency ward handling many fragile cases, her love for adult medicine was ignited.
“For adults, diagnosis was easy, but in the Paediatric Ward, cases needed thinking fast and hard as most of them were a life-and-death situation,” she said “I didn’t like the Paediatrics Wing at all.”
Later in 2010 after her internship she applied in a private clinic within the former Louis Medical Centre in Kampala. It was a job that excited her while causing some dismay because she saw a major gap of services in the Paediatric ward.
“After three months of working, I felt the environment wasn’t stimulating,” Mayega recalled. “I felt underutilized.”
She took her credentials to Kayunga District Hospital in the central part of the country. There were two medical doctors on staff with one being the medical superintendent and another, Dr. Sabiiti Perezi, engaged in administrative tasks more than patient care.
No sooner had she started her conversation with the hospital’s Human Resources, than an emergency happened in the labor ward; an operation had to be done to save a mother and child.
“First head to the ward and save them, then we can talk later, HR told me,“ she remembered. “I carried out a successful Caesarean section. In me, I felt I had found my place.”
With such tidings and talent, the District Service Commission (committee in charge of hiring civil servants at Local Government level across all sectors/departments) held an emergency meeting and agreed that Mayega should join the Hospital. In 2010, she was confirmed into Government service.
According to the Analysis of Health Labour Market in Uganda report 2022, the total stock of health workers in Uganda was estimated at 158,932 in 2022 with a density of 25.9 doctors, nurses and midwives per 10,000 people. The highest number of health workers were nurses and midwives (106,915), followed by laboratory technicians (16,098) and clinical officers (13,627).
With such statistics and few skilled medical doctors at the time, Kayunga Hospital had no doctor attached to obstetrics and paediatrics, leaving Mayega no option but to join the ward and serve.
The smiles from children after a relief of their medical challenges, along with the prayers and thank yous from their parents, was the beam of hope that further cemented Mayega’s service in paediatrics.
“A child’s smile and a relieved parent spoke directly to my soul,” she said. “This is what I am going to do for the rest of my life.”
Mayega credits her supervisor, Dr. Edson Mworozi, a senior consultant paediatrician from Mulago who visited Kayunga every two months, for much of her success. He told the Medical Superintendent not to “let the young lady go… her talent is a living testimony for the people of Kayunga.”
“I was in paediatrics but we still collectively managed emergencies as the three doctors,” she recalled.
In 2013 and despite insufficient human resources at the hospital, the District Service Commission granted her a study leave, allowing Mayega to leave Kayunga to pursue her Masters of Paediatrics and Child Health at Makerere University for three years.
In 2016, she worked part-time at Mengo’s Paediatric Ward while serving at Kayunga.
The District Health officer of Kayunga District at the time retired, and the Hospital Medical Superintendent was appointed to the position. Dr. Sabiiti, who was more senior, had advanced in age so he couldn’t replace the Superintendent; Mayega was called to fill the position to steer the hospital leadership, an opportunity she turned down.
“I wasn’t going back to Kayunga,” she said. Being married with children was part of the reason.
Mengo Hospital wrote to the Government asking Mayega to join there. She first served as a visiting paediatrician at the out-patient ward later transferred to the in-charge of the Paediatrics Ward to today.
Before joining, the hospital Paediatric Ward was referred to as a “death bed” as it was difficult to go a day without multiple mourning for the loss of children. When Mayega joined, the mortality rate dropped.
“The department was well known for not generating any income for the hospital,” Mayega said. “It is now recognised for its tremendous efforts.”
UCU journey
When the UCU SoM started in 2018, Dr. Edward Kanyesigye (the first Dean) sought to leverage on the experts of the hospital to champion a holistic education for the students – a goal he achieved. Mayega was among the experts who invented her own style of passing knowledge. She highlighted the course’s rich communal transformation in a unit called Maternal and Child Health, which requires students to go into communities and learn about a child.
In one of his engagements, the UCU Vice Chancellor Prof. Aaron Mushengyezi, highlighted the need of academic staff to advance their careers by pursuing PhDs that would help them to get grounded in research, partnerships and grants.
This statement is an affirmation of Mayega’s aspirations.
“I want to advance for my PhD to get grounded in the area of research to add onto the literature around Paediatrics in the country,” she said.
Her continuous encouragement and influence for further studies has led two of her subordinates at the hospital to pursue their Masters in Paediatrics. After them succeeding, she could have time to focus on research and hospital supervision.
Background
Mayega is married to Dr. Roy William Mayega, a medical doctor and a senior lecturer at Makerere University School of Public Health. The couple, married for 15 years, has four children.
Mayega is the last born of four children of the late Mr. and Mrs. John Baptist Buyisi.
Mengo is the first hospital in Uganda, established by a missionary and physician Dr. Sir. Albert Cook with his wife who belonged to the Church Missionary Society in 1897; Mengo is owned by the Anglican Church.
