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Masaka hospital moves to improve staff houses
Staffing. The recently constructed Masaka hospital staff quarters has 54 units, which the hospital says are not enough for all the health workers. Management says some staff were not complying with payment of maintenance fees while others had allocated the houses to their friends and relatives for years. PHOTO BY MALIK FAHAD JJINGO
To address shortage of accommodation at Masaka Regional Referral Hospital, the management is constructing another complex.
The staff quarters building is expected to house at least 40 members.
The Masaka hospital principal administrator, Mr Edward Kabuye, says the new complex will accommodate only senior staff since the existing building is occupied by the junior staff.
“We are optimistic that the new structure will bridge the existing gap of staff accommodation between the junior staff and the senior medical staff,” he says.
Masaka Regional Referral Hospital has more than 286 healthworkers, but the hospital can only provide housing facilities to a small percentage, which at times affects health service delivery at the hospital.
Mr Kabuye, however, says they are challenged by delayed release of funds, which he says affects construction works and sometimes the work stops for weeks as they wait for money.
The hospital director, Dr Nathan Onyanchi, says construction work is at 25 per cent.
“Currently, we can only provide accommodation to 98 staff in the existing 54 housing units and other old houses at the hospital,” he says.
He adds: “About 40 per cent of the general staff members are accommodated by the hospital and the rest rent houses outside the hospital, trekking between two and seven kilometres, which affects their daily productivity because they arrive at work tired, stressed and most times late.”
Sister Dativa Namagembe, one of the health workers at Masaka hospital, says lack of enough staff houses greatly affects them.
She asks the government to expeditiously release funds to complete the new staff quarters.
Some of the staff houses were commissioned in 2014 and the new ones under construction will replace the worn-out staff houses that were constructed in 1946.
Medical staff welfare
Each of the staff accommodated within the hospital is supposed to pay a monthly rental fee of Shs30,000, which means the hospital raises Shs1,620,000 from the existing 54 housing units every month.
However, a big number of health workers that reside in staff houses are said to be defaulting on paying their monthly rent fees.
The lack of accommodation for health workers partly points to the root of poor health service delivery, absenteeism, late reporting to work stations, and early closure of the health facilities.
It also leads to theft of medicines and equipment.
To ensure effective delivery of health services in the country, the welfare challenges healthcare givers face are what the hospital is focusing on.
