Officials from the State House health monitoring unit have linked the theft of oxygen cylinders at Jinja Regional Referral Hospital to laxity in stock taking and ensuring security at facility by the administrators .
They say that the administrators were negligent about good record keeping, which greatly provided a leeway for a section of hospital staff to steal the cylinders unnoticed.
They also fault hospital administrators of failure to institute tight security measures, which would enable security guards to conduct thorough checks of all personnel and health workers accessing and exiting the hospital premises without fail, arguing that, such inconsistencies eased the theft of oxygen cylinders, undetected.
The unit’s head of investigations, Collins Karugaba, says that they resolved to conduct fresh stock takings on Friday morning, after noticing inconsistencies in the hospital’s official records, where new findings from both undisclosed donors and ministry of health officials indicate that, the facility received 276 oxygen cylinders.
Karugaba reveals that, prior to their investigations, 56 oxygen cylinders were available, 22 others have been recovered within the course of the week, whereas 198 others are still missing.
Karugaba however, raises hope that with the institution of new hospital administration in place, there is room for tightening administrative lapses and gaps, which will help to control theft of hospital equipment and drugs.
Karugaba further stresses that, the unit has investigated several cases of misconduct, theft of government drugs and theft of equipment in Jinja hospital within the past five years, however, criminal actors keep evolving and employing new tactics.
He adds that, such acts frustrate the access of free health services to the wider population and it is only through total mindset change of health workers that, such vices can be controlled with in the hospital.
Meanwhile, the Kiira regional CID, Allan Twishiime says that they investigated cases of drug thefts in Jinja hospital mid last year and four hospital staff were prosecuted at the Jinja chief magistrates’ court.
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