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Nyamuyanja: Hospital where women only deliver during day
Nyamuyanja Health Centre IV in-charge Dr Faith Nankunda shows a machine that has been idle at the facility for more than five years due to power shortages. PHOTO/SHEILLAR MUTETSI
What you need to know:
- Nyamuyanja is one of the four Health Centre IVs in Isingiro District.
- The health facility struggles to conduct childbirths at night due to power shortages.
Mothers at a hospital in Isingiro District have only been delivering children during day for the last eight years due to power shortages.
Nyamuyanja Health Centre IV in Karutanga cell, Nyamuyanja Sub County in the Southern part of Isingiro District receives about 50 expectant mothers every month but has to manually monitor since theatre machines do not function.
“We only work on mothers during the course of the day because the light from outside, through windows, makes it easy for us to see. During the night, we are forced to make referrals due to lack of light,” said Dr Faith Nankunda, the in-charge of the health facility.
Dr Nankunda added: “In case of an emergency where a mother must deliver at night, we use the stethoscope, the lighting bulbs in the theatre and the rechargeable blood pressure machine to work on mothers.
Although the facility has not encountered what she describes as a serious challenge, Dr Nankunda says they operate under risk.
“It’s 8 years now- since the machines to help us do all this work were brought but they have never been used to work on any expectant mother since there’s no power. The availed electricity is of low voltage and can only power lighting bulbs,” Dr Nankunda explained.
The machines in question include the anesthetic machines, which monitors the response of the patient under operation to anesthesia medicine, an incubator that harbors premature babies and an oxygen concentrator that monitors the oxygen rate of the mother in labour.
Hospital authorities observe that the number of mothers using the hospital has dropped from about 70 mothers per month admitted for both caesarian section and natural birth to now about 42 mothers who are admitted only for the latter.
Still, 15 of these are referred to other hospitals according to the May-June statistics of the facility.
According to the Isingiro District Health Officer (DHO) Mr Edson Tumuheirwe, the facility would not be doing referrals if it had adequate power supply.
“With lack of electricity, the health workers are unable do operations and some procedures. This is not good because medical workers are demoralized,” said Dr Tumuheirwe.
He added, “We surely need that facility to have stable power for its effective operation. I have doctors and other health workers ready to do their work.”
Isingiro District Chairperson Mr Aaron Turahi informed this publication that stakeholders have put temporally means to address the challenge pending government action.
“We were able to provide a standby generator to Nyamuyanja Health Center IV that has now lasted 2 months as we wait for them to be upgraded from phase one to phase 3 of electricity. This is however insufficient and hopefully the issue will be addressed sooner than later as arrangements are underway,” said Mr Turahi.
