Masaka Hospital gets X-ray machines
Mr David Kasadha, a senior radiographer at Masaka Hospital, inspects the newly -installed X-ray machine donated by Koreans on February 14, 2023. Photo | Richard Kyanjo
What you need to know:
- One of the new X-ray machines was donated by the government whereas another was obtained through a partnership between the hospital and the Korean Foundation for International Healthcare (KOFIH).
Patients seeking X-ray services at Masaka Regional Referral Hospital now have a reason to smile after the facility secured two new machines.
X-ray services at the facility were suspended in August 2018 after the only machine broke down.
One of the new X-ray machines was donated by the government whereas another was obtained through a partnership between the hospital and the Korean Foundation for International Healthcare (KOFIH).
Mr Charles Tumushime, the Masaka Regional Referral Hospital principal administrator, said they have already installed both machines and are only waiting for clearance from the Uganda Atomic Energy Council (AEC-Uganda).
“Our people have been struggling to access X-ray services in the last four years, luckily enough, we got new machines in December 2022; which have been fully-installed and only await a licence from the Atomic Energy Council to start operating,” he said during an interview at the weekend.
ACE-Uganda is a body mandated to regulate a peaceful and safe application of ionising radiation, protection and safety of radioactive sources.
Mr David Kasadha, a senior radiographer at the hospital, said some inspectors from AEC recently visited the facility and gave some recommendations before the machines are put to use.
‘’The inspectors advised us to have windows and doors coated with lead in order to control emission of radioactive rays in the environment, we are now working on this and I am optimistic that by next week [this week] the work will be complete ,” he said.
In the last four years, patients seeking X-ray services at the facility have been referred to private health units in Masaka City.
The installation of new X-ray machines comes at a time when the facility had just secured a brand new Computerised Tomography (CT) scan machine, the first of its kind since the establishment of the hospital in 1927.
Records at Masaka Hospital indicate that the facility receives more than 80 patients on a daily basis that require x-ray services. The hospital’s average daily contact with patients is about 2,000.
By time the X-ray services were suspended, the AEC-Uganda had already warned the hospital management against operating the unit in disregard of safety precautions. There was reported leakage of radiation, which exposed the officer to cancer infections.
Some of the effects of radiation, according to medical experts include; burns, nausea, loss of hair, vomiting and even death in extreme cases, depending on the quantity of dosage one is exposed to.
