Soroti Regional Referral Hospital lacks cold rooms

By Salume Among                  

The facility in the cold room in Soroti regional referral hospital mortuary has stopped functioning rendering it difficult for people to preserve bodies of their dear ones before burial.

The facility run out of gas two weeks ago. The nearest functioning facility is at a military hospital in Lira district.

The Soroti hospital principle administrator, Thomson Obong confirmed the cold room was not functioning and promised it would be worked on soon.

"We are going to work hard to make sure that the facility in the cold room starts working this week," Obong said.

However, sources told New Vision that the hospital administration was notified of the problem earlier but failed to act for the last two weeks.

Last week the body of the former Soroti district land board chairman, Charles Aperu Eswau, was taken to Lira Army Hospital for preservation as the family waited for his daughter to arrive from London before he could be buried.

There are four hospitals in Teso sub-region but the other three that include; Atutur and Kumi hospitals in Kumi district, Fredda Car in Ngora district, do not have the cold room facilities in their mortuaries.

Mbale regional referral hospital, the biggest in the region, also has no cold room facilities in its mortuary and people, who need to preserve bodies of their deceased relatives, seek for the services in Bugema UPDF barracks in Mbale.

The chairman of the hospital management committee Dr. Domnic Waburokho said they have planned to install the facility this financial year.