By Vivian Agaba
MENGO - The outgoing Archbishop of Church of Uganda has sounded a general call to medical practitioners on handling patients with more affection and warmth.
The Most Rev. Henry Luke Orombi reminded hospital staff that the patients taken in ill require love, care and attention as part of their healing process.
“When people walk into hospitals, the first look medics give them, the words said to them and your touch can either be medicine or poison,” he said.
“Give them a warm welcome, tell them words of hope and check for illnesses with gentle touches,” adding that barking at or shouting out at the patients only makes matters worse.
“Kind words, gentle touches and love are therapeutic to patients and by the time you inject or give them medicine to swallow, or operate on them in the theatre, that is almost the last stage of healing,” his warmth in tone adding more sense to what he said.
The cleric was speaking at a farewell party recently at Mengo hospital which sits on one of Kampala’s seven hills – Namirembe Hill.
Orombi has served as patron of the over-a-century-old hospital for the last nine years.
Mengo Hospital is the oldest hospital in Uganda, whose existence spans over decades – having been established in 1897.
At the same function, the 63-year-old Archbishop commissioned and blessed a new CD4 machine, a significant breakthrough in the HIV/AIDS testing process and research.
He also opened the refurbished general operating theatre and the new private out-patients department.
Orombi also used the opportunity to call on youths to step up in integrity restoration and in efforts to combat moral decay and “bring back the country from the pit where Ugandans have dumped it”.
His concern was clear: “The biggest challenge this country is facing is moral rottenness.”
“The young generation must stand up in Jesus Christ and act as the light and salt of the world with integrity,” he said.
If Uganda is to realize major transformation to the better, Orombi says, every Ugandan needs to pray for the country.
