Approximately 71% of the health workers in public health facilities and hospitals that we surveyed between November 2020 and May 2021 said that a national ID was required.113 Meanwhile, only 30% of the workers in private health facilities we surveyed said they required a national ID.114 When asked when this requirement was introduced in specific health centres answers ranged from October of 2019 to early 2020. Figure 19. A medical officer during the registration of details of a patient in What was also made clear by Namayingo. our respondents is that the new, digital Health Management Information System played no role in practice: health workers recorded the NIN of patients in a paper booklet provided by NIRA that was usually stored in a locked room in the hospital and never left that room. For many health centres, the requirement was triggered not by an electronic system, but when NIRA introduced new (paper) registration booklets. Many health workers we spoke with did identify some benefits to writing down their patients’ NIN and basic biographical and health information. Mainly, they believed that this made it easier to identify individual patients and to follow up with them about treatments. However, many health workers also said that while it was a requirement to ask for an NIC and register the NIN, they often did not enforce it because it meant that they would have to deny care to patients in need—and because they feared reprisals from angry community members. Figure 20. A patient register with columns for the NIN. 50 Chased Away and Left to Die