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Buikwe, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The newly refurbished Kawolo hospital in Lugazi municipality in Buikwe district is still unable to handle critical emergency cases due to lack of equipment.
The hospital, which is strategically located along Kampala-Jinja Highway, was rehabilitated at the cost of US$11.8m (about Shillings 40b) from Spanish Aid/debt SWAP directly managed by the Health Ministry, which contracted Excel Construction Company Limited.
The rehabilitation work started in June 2017 and ended in April 2019. It also included the construction of a new outpatient department, full equipped theater with three suits, new staff house, 4 latrines, water tanks and 2 solar powered boreholes and mortuary.
The facility also received a new block housing the Emergency Department that was expected to be equipped by the end of April this year with a modern Intensive Care Unit-ICU and with Computerized Tomography-CT scan to handle sensitive and critical emergencies.
The Medical Superintendent Kawolo hospital, Dr. Joshua Kiberu, says the accident and emergency area receives on average 30 people each day, 10 of whom are accident victims.
He however, says they are only able to handle limited injuries because of lack of the necessary equipment, adding that they refer patients with critical injuries to Mulago National Referral Hospital and other facilities for specialized services.
Other departments in the emergency area include the trauma, orthopedic and physiotherapy sections. Among these, only the physiotherapy room has been installed with equipment including an infra-radiation machine, shoulder wheel, pulley system and a quadriceps bench.
The physiotherapy room lacks among others stationary, climbing steps and patient gowns. A worker, who preferred anonymity so to speak to URN freely, notes each department has one technical officer yet the turn up of patients is very high.
She notes that each officer is supposed to handle at least 15 patients each day but they end up handling more patients given the big number of people turning up on a daily basis.
“We need much more man power to offer technical services to people, they come in big numbers and we end up working on those in the most critical condition in all sections of the emergency wing,” she said.
Dr. Kiberu explains that challenge of limited workers is not only affecting the emergency area but crosses to almost every section of the hospital.
He however, says that management has communicated most of the challenges to the responsible authorities who are yet to respond.
Stephen Sselubula, a resident of Lugazi town, says they will be happy once government installs the hospital with required equipment. He notes that many residents return to their homes instead of commuting to referrals as directed by health workers due to financial constraints.
Although the hospital has undergone renovations and construction process, several others are managed by Buikwe District are still being worked on. These include setting up a perimeter wall around the hospital and renovation of staff quarters.
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