Makerere University Hospital!

Feb 08, 2005

SIR— My relative, a first-year student living with a disability, was taken to Makerere University Hospital at 9am with the help of one of his friends when he was in a crisis (a term used by those suffering from sickle-cell disease).

SIR— My relative, a first-year student living with a disability, was taken to Makerere University Hospital at 9am with the help of one of his friends when he was in a crisis (a term used by those suffering from sickle-cell disease).

He was referred upstairs, purportedly to wait for a doctor.

They asked him whether he was registered and he said ‘no’. They told him to pay sh5,000 to get him a file, but he didn’t have it at the time and was in great pain. A lady in a small office there said they could not treat him without the five thousands shillings. He stayed there until midday when one of his friends rang us to go and take him elsewhere because there was no doctor attending to him and he was becoming worse.

In the same room was another student who had been hurt in an accident, crying out in pain. He sent me to call a nurse, which I did. He said he had been there for two hours without treatment.

I got a vehicle and took my relative to his doctor. He is better now. But there is another hurdle — getting a letter from the university hospital to verify that he is actually disabled and that he was actually sick! It is not easy! It is almost impossible.

Moses Kasibante
Kampala

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