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Hospital staff house stuck at foundation level for 7 years
The Masaka hospital staff houses complex which has stalled at foundation level. PHOTO/MALIK FAHAD JJINGO
What you need to know:
- The 40-unit complex, which was launched in 2014, was expected to be completed within three years.
Senior staff members at Masaka Regional Referral Hospital will have to wait a little longer to get decent accommodation due to lack of funds to complete the staff quarters complex.
Construction of a 40-unit senior staff quarters complex, which was launched in 2014, has stalled at foundation level yet the Shs11b project was expected to be completed within three years.
According to Mr Charles Tumushiime, the Masaka Regional Referral Hospital administrator, the funds they currently receive from the government cannot facilitate construction works at the structure.
“The challenge is funding and it’s unfortunate that even in this new financial year budget, the project has not been allocated funds, which is going to make it stall further,” he said in an interview last week.
He said they now need at least Shs8 billion to facilitate construction works.
Mr Swaibu Makumbi Sulambaaya, the chairperson of the Southern Region Social Rights Association, said they were excited when the staff quarters project was launched, but the delay to complete the project has dampened their hopes.
“Rent in Masaka has drastically increased and the hospital workers are also facing this challenge, some rent houses are outside the hospital, trekking between two and five kilometres affects workers’ daily productivity as they arrive at work late,” he said.
Mr Sulambaaya, who also doubles as the chairperson of Masaka Hospital Patients Association, said if the government has failed to complete the staff quarters, they should operationalise the Child and Maternity complex which was finished years ago.
“Let them at least provide the Shs2b needed to open the maternity complex so that people can get standard services as we wait for senior staff to get good accommodation,” he added.
Construction of the 400-bed Child and Maternity Complex started in 2015 and was expected to be completed in 2017 at a tune of Shs10.6 billion.
However, the facility has remained unutilised due to lack of funds. The hospital administration says they need at least Shs2b to cater for utility bills at the complex. Currently, the hospital has a total of about 286 health workers, but it can only provide housing facilities to 98, which at times affects service delivery at the facility.
Some of the staff quarters at the hospital were commissioned in 2014 and the ones under construction will replace the worn out staff houses that were constructed in 1946.
Section H-B of Public Service Standing Orders on tenancy estates that a public officer or any other tenant occupying government house, shall, unless otherwise stated, pay rent.
The rent payable shall be determined by the responsible permanent secretary in case of pool housing and responsible officer in case of institutional housing in consultation with the government valuer.
In case the institutional houses are not occupied, government Standing Orders dictate that the responsible officer rent it out to another public officer in another sector.
The rent payable in this case shall be collected in advance on a quarterly basis.
