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Masaka X-ray machine breaks down
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:
- The X- ray machine, which was acquired and installed in February last year, broke down two months ago and has never been repaired.
Patients who need X- ray services at Masaka Regional Referral Hospital are currently requested to go elsewhere following the breakdown of the newly acquired machine.
The X- ray machine, which was acquired and installed in February last year, broke down two months ago and has never been repaired.
Currently, patients and their caregivers have to seek for services from private facilities where they pay between Shs30,000 and Shs50,000.
The suspension of X-ray services followed an incident of an electrical short circuit in which several machines at the hospital got damaged .
According to Mr Charles Tumushime, the Masaka Regional Referral Hospital administrator, they are faced with the challenge of electrical short circuits, which keeps damaging hospital machines.
“We have always complained about unclean energy the hospital receives, which affects us. We are lucky it was only the Automatic Voltage Regulator machine that was affected, but last time, we lost several equipment to an electricity short circuit, and we had to pay over Shs100m in repairs and replacements of the damaged machines,” he said in an interview on Monday.
“We have written to the Health Ministry about the same, asking them to compel the Ministry of Energy to get us a solution to this problem,” he said.
Currently , Mr Tumushime said specialists at the X-ray department are unable to produce images of body organs and other internal structures for diagnostic purposes .
He said procuring and installing of the new automatic voltage regulator system will cost them about Shs8 million, which is not readily available .
“We cannot use the X-ray machine without a voltage regulator due to advanced effects it can cause to the patient, So, we need to first secure money to repair it before we put it into use. ‘’ he added.
Mr Tumushiime, however, asked the people that seek services at the regional facility to stay calm as they work on the machine, saying by the end of the week, the X-ray services will have been restored.
Mr Swaib Makumbi Sulambaya, the chairperson of Masaka Regional Referral Hospital Patients Association, asked the government to come to the rescue of locals that seek services at the facility. “We are fighting to ensure that patients can get free meals, and you get such information that the hospital is going to spend some millions of shillings on repairing machines because of electrical short-circuits,” he said.
“The power distributor should be put to task to explain why the hospital keeps getting these short circuit incidents,” he added.
