Although the facility was disinfected on Monday evening and Tuesday morning, patients and their attendants started fleeing it for fear of contracting Covid19. As a result, management temporarily relocated some of the patients to the outpatient department. However, most of them opted to seek medical services from lower health facilities.
Angom died on Monday morning. However, her body was still lying in the outpatient department by Tuesday afternoon. The deceased’s neighbour, Ruth Akello says Angom was bleeding profusely when she was rushed to the facility on Monday shortly before she was pronounced dead.
Some of facilities for sanitizing hands provided at different wards lack constant water supply and soap, which denies people from washing their hands routinely. Also health workers, patients and their attendants don’t adhere to the guidelines requiring them to wear face masks, which increases their chances of contracting and spreading Covid19.
The Hospital Director, Dr. Florence Tugumisirize, says each patient has a feeding budget of Shillings 15,000 per day, which is inadequate to cater for their recommended diets.
The patients were protesting the poor living conditions at the centre, late meals, poor sanitation and delayed results. The patients further challenged the absence of guards at the facility which does not have a perimeter wall to protect them from intruders and the lack of psychosocial support.
As a result, community members say, that a number of confined patients are taking advantage of the loophole to freely take walks to unidentified locations, especially in the evening. Many have been seen purchasing different items from shops and mixing up with unsuspecting community members.
Led by their zonal chairperson, Jimmy Okalo, the recovered patients said that although the first negative results were availed to them five days after the tests were conducted, the confirmatory test results were announced to them after a week.
Mubarack Weere, the Administrator Jinja Regional Referral Hospital told URN that they have officially notified the Health Ministry about the breakdown of their X-ray machine and efforts are underway to repair it soon.
The hospital was ruined when river Nyamwamba burst its banks resulting in floods that washed away medicines and other essential equipment on Thursday. As a result, the authorities resolved to evacuate all 87 patients who were found at Kilembe Hospital at the time of the tragedy.
The isolation centre which was set up at Busoga university premises was meant to accommodate 80 suspected patients. Days after its establishment, a number of people who met the COVID-19 definition were sent there for supposed isolation, pending testing by the Uganda Virus Research Institute.
Unlike other countries, South Sudan took early measures eve before registering the first case. the government declared a curfew from 8:00 p.m. to 06:00 am ad also ordered the closure of all bars, night clubs, and shops, other than those selling food, in addition to encouraging people to observe social distancing rules.
Dr. Byamugisha told URN in an exclusive interview that prior to the renovation of the hospital, the delivery of health services had become difficult and expensive to manage.
All this has improved, despite the insatiable demands at the Hospital. Following months of renovation work, Dr. Josaphat K. Byamugisha, the Director of the newly transformed Makerere Health Services says he breathes with a sigh of relief.
Muwanguzi adds that the isolation room at the hospital caters for only eight people yet an average of 15 suspected COVID-19 victims have been seeking medical attention on a daily basis. He adds that the dormitories at the university will provide enough room for the privacy of all isolated patients under their supervision.
The patient is a 15-year-old girl who reportedly crossed from the Democratic Republic of Congo, through Lake Albert waters and landed at Ndaiga landing site in Kagadi district on Friday. The teenager first reported to Kagadi Central Police Station after failing to locate the Hospital, to seek treatment after experiencing general body weakness, Headache Fever and cough.
Dr. James Muliwabyo, the Health Centre In charge, says the unidentified man supposedly in his 40’s was picked by police from the streets of Kasese town while unconscious.
Residents note that distribution of anti-malarial drugs is facilitated through a grant from donors but some patients are instead tasked to purchase drugs under the watch of leaders who rarely supervise the progress of these projects.
At the medical camps residents benefited from free malaria screening, hepatitis B vaccination, immunization of children below five years, sensitisation on primary health care and proper nutrition.
