Health centres in Kibuku and Budaka districts are stuck with 74 hospital beds delivered by the government a week over inadequate space. Kibuku Health Center IV received 40 beds, Iki Iki Health Center III 20 beds and Nalubembe Health Center III 14 beds.
The health centres also received an equal number of mattresses but they are yet to find where to place them due to adequate space. The facilities are in dire need of new beds. Health officials are worried that the beds will rust or disappear unless they find space to place them.
Jacob Owino, a Senior Clinician at Kibuku Health Center IV, says that they are struggling with limited space despite an overwhelming number of patients.
Allen Mutonyi, a midwife in the same facility noted that the health centre only has two delivery beds and yet they need about five beds since they receive high numbers of expectant mothers. She noted that even the beds in the recovery room are few but they can’t add more beds because of the limited space.
“Sometimes you find there are five mothers and everyone is delivering, so we are forced to put others down on the floor, which is risky,” she said. Nai Dhaakaba, a lab technician, says that Kibuku Health Center IV runs all tests in the district but because of limited space, many of the machines are redundant.
Cornelius Mbulalina Damisya, the in-charge of Iki iki Health Center III in Budaka district says that they have a big problem of limited space. Iki iki Health Center III is the second oldest in the district after Budaka Health center IV but has been operating in one block since it started as a dispensary.
He notes that the maternity ward operates with only one bed and that even if they wanted to add another bed in the ward, the limited space wouldn’t allow them. He also says that they lack an inpatient ward, which has constrained the services delivered at the facility. Mbulalina said that although they have been given 20 beds and mattresses, they cannot use them because they lack space to install them.
Iki Iki Health Center III serves 38,000 people from within the IKI IKI sub-county and IKI IKI County Constituency. Kibuku District Health Officer Dr. Godfrey Buyinza told a delegation from the Bugwere Cultural Institution during a needs assessment visit to health centres that the problem of space cuts across the entire district.
Buyinza said that the many health centres in the district don’t have good maternity wards and lack laboratory services. Dr. Jeremiah Twatwa Mutwalante, the Minister of Health in Bugwere Cultural Institution, said that they were conducting a needs assessment in the health units within the districts under the cultural institution to find a way of joining the government to lobby support for the health sector.
He said that the cultural institution has friends who are interested in helping the people of Bugwere, especially in the areas of health, adding that their observation indicates that there are many health needs in the region.
Joel Mugulusi, the Prime Minister of Obwa Ikumbania bwa Bugwere, says that the government promised to upgrade the health facilities in the region mainly to regional and district hospitals and health centres IIIs to health centre IV status.
He, however, says ten years later, this is yet to pass. He faulted the government for delivering beds to health facilities before conducting a needs assessment.
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