Masaka hospital speaks out on ‘pathetic’ Covid isolation centre

In the video that went viral, the asymptomatic patient detailed scenes of poor sanitation, letting non-Covid 19 positive children live with the positive adults at the facility and concerns about being given medication without written prescriptions.

“Doctors get here just once to drop a medication that has no name. As for me, the doctor did not explain what kind of medication this is. As a former nurse, I do not want to take medication that I do not know. There is no prescription sheet to show what we are taking,” the patient said as she showed two unlabelled packages of folded papers and a paracetamol prescription on the other.

The patient complained of the hospital pushing coronavirus patients to a dilapidated hospital structure without running water and other sanitary facilities.

She further added that the treatment centre is close to a mortuary which gives them mental distress when they see dead bodies being carried to it.

The patient, who claimed to have spent about 24 hours at hospital’s Covid-19 treatment centre, said the services at there could not enable them to heal from the highly infectious virus.

On presence of children at the centre
But Dr Mark Jjuko, the in-charge of the Covid-19 treatment centre, said the two children seen in the video at the ward are positive and are being treated at the centre. Other children are relatives of patients, he said.

“We have handled several patients with children, especially those that don’t have people to take care of them at home. We take them (patients and children) through safety precaution measures and they have all lived well and no one, including those that we have discharged, has ever tested positive,” Dr Jjuko told Daily Monitor.

He added: “The ward where the female patient complaining sleeps is an annex of the treatment centre after the main ward with a 22-bed capacity got filled up.”

Dr Jjuko said all beds in the annex centre have insecticide treated mosquito nets.
“Despite the annex being established in an old building which was formerly housing a mental ward, the place is clean and the ward has cleaners opposed to claims made by the female patient,” he explained.

On running water
Dr Jjuko dismissed claims by the patient that the toilet facilities did not have running water. He said there was water in a basin as seen in her video.

The video showed water dripping into a basin in one of the two bathrooms outside the wards.
He further dismissed claims of garbage mismanagement, with the video showing medical waste poured near a tree close to the ward.

“The litter shown in the video near the ward was put there to dry since it was wet following a heavy downpour. It was difficult to be placed in the incinerator when it was wet,” Dr Jjuko said.

However, Dr Nathan Onyachi, the hospital director, admitted that the hospital has challenges.
“She (the patient) has a point on waste management, which we have told the team to improve. Improvement of this particular extension of the CTU is still work in progress, and Masaka Regional Referral Hospital has asked for a refill of CTU funds, including some for those minor renovations, which we hope we shall receive.”

He added: “We decided to improve on this old building, which was previously working as a records store. I do understand it required more renovation. But that is what we could do given the urgency and resources available.”
“The tent you see beside the building was provided by Absa Bank; it is not yet in use because Absa is trying to create a concrete base for it. So this is work in progress. The ground on which it stands is recently graded to give the tent a level platform,” Dr Onyachi explained.

On meals and feeding
Dr Jjuko denied another allegation by the patient about poor feeding. He told Daily Monitor that the patients are fed on a balanced diet of milk, meat, and chicken and beans that are spread across their menu schedule in the week to boost patients’ immunity.

“I was surprised to see the video of a female patient making rounds, complaining that they are neglected when I had personally just talked to her after taking part in her admission at the centre, and she even asked for yellow bananas of which one of the nurses used her own money to buy for her. She was given a carton of mineral water after refusing to share water from the water dispensers in the ward,” he said.

During an accountability budget address to the nation last month, the Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary, Dr Diana Atwine, indicated that the March to September 2020 budget for coronavirus response for special meals stood at Shs4.8 billion.

Ministry allocation
A total of Shs227 million was given to the 15 regional referral hospitals in the country for management of coronavirus cases. Another Shs11 billion was used to procure 37 ambulances.

Dr Atwine said in the three months, Shs2.3 billion had been paid to feed 1,985 people in quarantine sites while Shs2.2 billion had been paid for accommodation in hotels that accommodated 1,093 returnees and contacts who were quarantined.
Dr Onyachi said the official treatment unit (the Mental Health Unit) at Masaka got full at 21 beds, at a time when the facility was getting a surge from Mutukula and had challenges transporting patients to Mulago, Entebbe, Mubende and Naguru.

The treatment centre has at least 18 nurses, four doctors, and four cleaners and the doctors see patients three to five times a day, according to Dr Jjuko.

By Monday, the facility had 30 patients that are still undergoing treatment. A total of 47 have recovered and were discharged since the centre was established in April, 2020.

Probe launched

Security authorities in Masaka District said they had launched investigations to establish the patient’s motive to record a video that went viral on social media. The district coronavirus taskforce chairperson, Mr Herman Ssentongo, told journalists last Thursday that the former nurse, who recorded the video, had “a hidden agenda” which they are yet to establish.