MUKONO. Mukono General Hospital is grappling with infrastructure challenges, leaving patients sleeping on the floor and others staying outside due to inadequate space.
According to the Medical Superintendent of this hospital, Dr. Geoffrey Kasirye, they are forced to discharge patients as early as possible to create room for those waiting for the services. As they improve, we discharge them before they are totally cured because there are others that are badly off, so when we improve the infrastructure, the quality of medical care will also improve.
Dr. Kasirye said this on Friday while receiving over 40 mattresses from Mt. Labanon Cathedral in Mukono.
Over 30 mothers deliver every day, 900 deliver every month, last year we delivered about 10,000 mothers, and we only have eight delivery beds,’ Dr. Kasirye said.
In most cases, we hold mothers for about four to five hours and discharge them. This is done after identifying that the patient is not in critical condition, to give a chance to others who have also come to deliver.
For those who fail to leave during night hours, they converge in some places, and we offer them mattresses until they leave in the morning.
Infrastructure challenges remain a pressing concern, especially in maternity care. Critical areas needing expansion or renovation include maternity and neonatal units, Emergency care and accident unit, labor wards and postnatal care, staff accommodation and completion of the hospital’s perimeter fence.
Dr. Kasirye said the provision for accident victims is not enough, as they have only two beds, and yet they are on a highway and receive so many accident victims.
Mukono General Hospital was upgraded in the 2019/2020 financial year, but according to Dr. Kasirye, little has changed since then.
Dr. Kasirye said the children and the old share wards, especially those who get accidents, we take them to share with the adult ones because we have no space and beds. Sometimes, even patients share beds.
In standard practice, we should have separate surgical wards, separate medical wards, and separate wards for children. However, due to a lack of resources, we inevitably treat patients under these circumstances. Nevertheless, we still have space to develop, and we are only lacking skilled developers.
Mukono General Hospital is also grappling with staff shortages, as they are only at 52 percent of the required number.
Dr. Kasirye calls on the government /ministry of health to support them in improving the infrastructure to give proper medical care to patients.
We need two stalled buildings with four levels to reduce the infrastructure challenge. We were not considered in the current financial year, and we pray we will be considered in the next financial year.
Pastor Samuel Lwandasa, who donated the mattresses, said he observed that Mukono General Hospital is grappling with a lot of challenges, including a lack of beddings and decided to offer support for the good of the patients.
The hospital receives so many patients from Mukono, Kayunga, Wakiso, Buikwe and Buvuma districts.