She was particularly unhappy with Mpuuga’s June 9 visit to Kawolo hospital in Buikwe district, which ended with the health workers there announcing a sit-down strike over unpaid salaries.
Kawolo was the seventh health facility the Mpuuga-led opposition MPs were visiting in as many days since the Nyendo-Mukungwe MP embarked on a countrywide tour to ostensibly evaluate the projects on which taxpayers’ money is spent.
From Nakaseke to Luweero, Buvuma, Kayunga, Mukono, and Wakiso districts, Mpuuga unearthed the deplorable state of Uganda’s healthcare services, with some hospitals running at miserable staffing levels and lack of basic equipment, among others.
For instance, the Entebbe regional referral hospital director, Dr Peterson Steven Kyebambe, reported “an acute staff shortage,” having only 16 per cent of its approved staffing structure filled.
“We were given a supplementary of Shs 406 million this [financial] quarter so that we can get some staff recruited in this hospital. But before we could go through with it, the Public Service ministry halted it until the headcount was done. We are now afraid that this money will go back unutilized, yet we are badly in need of staff,” Dr Kyebambe said.
The revelations shocked the MPs, especially given that the hospital is a stone’s throw from State House.
“At 16 per cent, it is almost criminal to speak about it. We can also say you do not have any staff. You are way below the WHO [World Health Organisation] threshold,” Mpuuga said.
Having housed the national Covid-19 isolation unit, Dr Kyebambe said the hospital ended up losing furniture and other equipment due to overspray of antiseptics and other disinfectants. To make up for the losses, the hospital wants an additional allocation of at least Shs 2 billion to repair and replace the damaged furniture.
Most shocking for the MPs was that Entebbe Grade A hospital, which is the referral for all cases from the neighbouring State House and Entebbe International Airport, is operating in buildings that have been condemned as un- fit for human habitation.
“It is embarrassing; some of the buildings at Grade A are almost 118 years old. They need to be razed down, and we are building a new complex,” Kyebambe said.
Despite being the first point of reference for State House and Entebbe International Airport, the MPs also heard that the hospital lacks critical medical equipment across key departments.
This is unlike Kawolo hospital, which underwent major repairs and expansion courtesy of the UPDF engineering brigade. But like the other hospitals, Kawolo too is grappling with drug stockouts. For four months, Dr Joshua Kiberu, the hospital’s medical superintendent, told the MPs, healthcare workers have only been writing prescriptions for the patients and advising them to look for medicines from nearby pharmacies.
“Cycle 6 [of the medical supplies] was supposed to be delivered by May 30, but as we talk now, we have only received four cycles. By next week, we will be getting delivery of the first cycle for the year 2023-age of 30 deliveries are handled every day, but the maternity ward has only six beds, so the mothers have to take turns using the beds. Mpuuga questioned why the ministry of Health allowed the establishment of a private wing despite the facility having a single maternity ward.
“It is criminal for a regime of almost 40 years to allow mothers and babies to die during birth. All of us must get concerned,” Mpuuga said. The facility has only two incubators, which are used interchangeably, but sometimes puts two babies in an incubator.
Records at the health facility indicate that a total of 800 mothers are delivered from the facility annually, out of which 250 undergo caesarean sections and four succumb to postpartum haemorrhage (PPH).
According to Dr Kasirye, the high occurrence of stillbirths is mainly caused by untreated infections in mothers, bleeding, and malaria. Meanwhile, the health facility lacks an X-ray and has only two scans, of which one is non-functioning.
The LOP described the situation at Mukono general hospital as the entire demise and neglect of healthcare providers in the country. Mukono Municipality MP Betty Nambooze criticised the hospital administration for painting a rosy picture of the state of affairs at the facility, especially regarding stillbirths.
Nambooze also wondered why the facility is tight-lipped about the challenges of the hospital, yet it is the responsibility of the government to effectively equip health facilities.
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