Challenges, Distrust, and Understanding: Employing Communicative Action in Improving Trust in a Public Medical Sector in Uganda

Abstract

We assessed how the everyday work challenges that frontline health workers (FRHWs) face in the government health sector in northern Uganda influence their trust in the Ministry of Health (MOH). We employed qualitative research techniques, including interviews and participant observation, over a 9-month period to examine FRHWs’ viewpoints about how the MOH should address these challenges in service delivery. One hundred and sixty-five FRHWs, of whom 48 were recruited for extensive follow-up, participated in our study. Key findings include distrust in the MOH is prevalent among FRHWs, there is a lack of trust in the organization’s coordination role in service delivery and this affects health care delivery to patients, interrelations, and provider cooperation. Therefore, restoring trust in government hospitals will require a truthful non-violent response by the MOH in its contractual agreement with FRHWs. In our analysis, we employ Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action.