Lira hospital lacks 150 health workers

LIRA. The administration of Lira Regional Referral Hospital has acknowledged the facility is not in position to effectively and efficiently provide health services because of inadequate personnel.
The hospital that serves a population of more than 2.1 million people, has only 280 personnel against a staff ceiling of 430 health workers.
The hospital administrator, Mr Michael Odur, said the staff shortage has been majorly registered in the area of specialists.
“We have 280 staff and ideally, we should be having 430 in total. We are not mandated to hire new staff. Recruitment is the mandate of the Ministry of Health,” he told this newspaper at his office last week.
He said the staff shortage is affecting operations adding, “We are looking forward to a time when we have all the required staff”.
Lira Regional Referral Hospital handles referral cases from Alebtong, Otuke, Lira, Oyam, Apac, Kole, Amolatar and Dokolo health facilities.
“If you are short in numbers that means you cannot be very effective, because instead of having let’s say, two or three nurses in one shift, you may have only one. You can imagine the effect on the quality of services,” Mr Odur explained.

Accommodation
“So it is making the few people who are there overwork because the numbers are not adequate enough and yet the number of patients keeps increasing. We are getting people who are referred and then those who just come by themselves,” he said.
Although a new house has been built at the hospital to accommodate at least eight staff, Mr Odur said lack of staff accommodation has also remained a challenge at the hospital.
“If we have more staff accommodated near the hospital, we will be more effective and efficient because access to staff who should be on duty will be easier,” he added.
Currently, many health workers live far off places, ranging from four to 15kms because of lack of accommodation at the hospital.
With a bed capacity of 346 beds, the health facility offers both general and specialised services and it acts as a teaching hospital.
On average, about 1,000 patients visit the hospital’s Out Patient Department, while 300 In-patients are admitted every day.