Construction of Gulu hospital staff quarters stalls for six years

The construction works of staff quarters at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital have delayed for the last six years, this publication has learnt.

On Monday, Dr Peter Mukobi, the facility’s director said, in an interview that the quality of services at the hospital has been impacted by the commitment of staff members who stay outside the hospital.

“It is a big problem, the incompletion of the structure has affected us significantly, when (health) workers stay very far we have to drive around looking for them, or they have to jump on boda bodas and or we have to improvise other means to look for them and it is too costly for us,” Dr Mukobi said.

He added: “At the end of the day, when staff who would be benefiting from it are reaching here late for work, it ends up affecting the quality of healthcare services.”

Management said 22 of the 400 staff are currently housed inside the facility while the rest commute due to inadequate staff housing units.

Dr Mukobi said Shs3 billion is needed to facilitate the works at the stalled project. He added that several attempts to engage the Health and Finance ministries over the facility’s completion in writing and emails have, however, been in vain.

“Every time we have been communicating, not only to the Ministry of Health but even the Finance ministry because the whole thing boils down to finances, the last communication we sent last month. It is a huge motivator to have staff sleeping in staff quarters, they will perform better,”Dr Mukobi said.

In early 2019, the construction of the 54-unit staff quarters for health workers at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital valued at Shs6.5 billion stalled. The works commenced in 2014 when Block Technical Services, its contractor, abandoned the site due to funding shortfalls.

Gulu Regional Referral Hospital is among the regional hospitals in the country with the least accommodation for staff, across the country.

However, it serves a population of at least 2.4 million people since it is a referral facility for patients from neighbouring Amuru, Omoro, Kitgum, Lamwo, Nwoya, Agago and Pader, Kiryandongo districts as well as refugees, mostly from South Sudan.

This publication also established that whereas some staff are being housed inside the facility, the units are dilapidated structures.

Last month, the parliamentary Committee on Health assessed the hospital. MPs learnt that their previous calls for the project’s funding and completion had not yielded results.

On August 30, the committee presented its report during the regional parliamentary plenary sitting in Gulu City.

Mr Samuel Opio Acuti, the committee’s vice chairperson, said they were shocked that the 54-unit staff accommodation project, which started 10 years ago, has stalled.

“The hospital management explained that work stalled due to non-release of funds for the previous three financial years. Currently, Shs3 billion is estimated as required to complete the project whose total cost was Shs6.8 billion at the time the project started in 2014,” Mr Opio told the House.

Besides inadequate staff accommodation, the hospital also grapples with unreliable water supply and power outages, the committee noted.

The power outage does not only interfere with the efficient operations in the intensive care unit (ICU) but also often has contributed to the breakdown of equipment.

“The government should appropriate funds to an estimated tune of Shs3 billion to complete the 54 staffing units at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital to solve the challenges of staff accommodation,” Mr Opio said.

The last disbursement made towards the completion of the stalled staff house was Shs582 million in the financial year 2019/2020, according to the Health Sector Semi-Annual Budget Monitoring Report for Financial Year 2019/20 by the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.

The project’s annual allocation for FY 2019/2020 was Shs1.488 billion, Shs582 million was released (39 percent) while only Shs543 million (93 percent) was spent by December 31, 2019.

The expenditures were on the construction of the 54-unit staff house (73 percent), OPD rehabilitation, and installation of solar lights at 14 percent.

Whereas Block Technical Services continued to undertake works at the 54-unit staff house, the report said the works were behind schedule and cumulative physical progress stagnated at 51 percent since FY 2018/2019.

Meanwhile, when the contract for the supervising consultant expired, it was not renewed.

Mr Apollo Munghinda, the principal communications officer at the Ministry of Finance, said: “The issue is not about releases. The ministry releases funds to all votes every 10th day of the first month of every quarter, meaning that funds for this quarter were released in July 2024. So the issue could be insufficient resources for the project to be completed this financial year or not being in the plan for this financial year.”

Nonetheless, Mr Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the public relations officer of the Ministry of Health, has committed to “cross-check with the engineering department”.

AUDIT REPORT

According to Auditor General’s report for 2023, Gulu hospital has inadequate accommodation facilities while the existing staff houses
are dilapidated and are in dire need of repair. Also, cracks have developed on the roof of the hospital’s medicine stores.

“The inspection also revealed that toilets were insufficient, thus posing a risk of disease outbreak, which could affect the hospital patients as well. Inadequate housing may contribute to health issues, including mental health concerns, which can, in turn, affect job performance and patient care,” the audit report stated.