Nakaseke hospital overwhelmed by the COVID 19 referrals

By Frederick Kiwanuka

NAKASEKE hospital authorities say they are overwhelmed by the ever-rising costs of running the referral unit following a recent abrupt increase in the number of COVID 19 contacts who are being quarantined there.

 This is after 33 contacts of a COVID 19 positive truck driver who was intercepted in the District, were last week quarantined at the facility.

 The truck driver who is currently being treated at Mulago, was intercepted at Katuugo village in Wakyato sub county, Nakaseke district last Tuesday May 19  after testing positive for corona virus at  the South Sudanese Elegu border testing point.

According to the district authorities, after incepting the driver ,the district  COVID 19 surveillance team traced 33 contacts who have since been quarantined at Nakaseke District referral.

However, according to the chairperson of Nakaseke hospital management committee, Mariam Kaberuka, the referral unit is lacking the necessary logistics to handle the big number of contacts.

 Kaberuka said the contacts were sleeping on the bare floor due to lack of beddings at the facility, adding that the isolation ward had a maximum capacity of handling only 15 contacts. 

 The Nakaseke Hospital Administrator, Ntumwa Matovu said the referral had depleted its food stocks due to the increased number of ordinary patients and the quarantined COVID contacts 

He said the hospital received only 7m to handle the COVID pandemic which was spent on health workers' allowances and feeding.

The LC5 chairman, Ignatius Koomu said the district COVID task force was planning to meet this Week to discuss how to handle the problem of feeding the contacts.

 Nakaseke, like other districts, received 165m from the central government to help in handling the COVID 19 epidemic. This is in addition to cash and material donations from area politicians and other well-wishers like Chinese investors in the district who recently donated 98m.