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Soroti hospital staff ask govt to expand neonatal unit
A prison warder escorts the four accused staff of Soroti Regional Referral Hospital to court in Soroti City on July 20, 2023. PHOTO/SUZAN NANJALA
What you need to know:
- Dr Florence Alaroker, a senior consultant paediatrician at the hospital, said the unit, which has a capacity of about 10 beds, receives between two and four premature babies a day while about 30 to 40 babies can spend up to four months admitted.
Staff at Soroti Referral Hospital have asked the government to expand the neonatal intensive care unit following the overwhelming numbers of pre-mature babies receiving treatment at the facility.
Dr Florence Alaroker, a senior consultant paediatrician at the hospital, said the unit, which has a capacity of about 10 beds, receives between two and four premature babies a day while about 30 to 40 babies can spend up to four months admitted.
“The unit has become very small and yet one bed is shared with about three to four babies,” she told Monitor at the weekend.
Dr Alaroker said some babies, many of them less than a kilogramme, are born as early as 24 weeks.
Option
She advised district leaders to create space in maternity wards in other health facilities to handle some of the premature babies so that the complicated cases are sent to the referral hospital.
Dr Alaroker called for mass sensitisation on early antenatal care to reduce the cases.
Sr Grace Epaku, the hospital’s senior principal nursing officer, asked the government to construct a unit that can accommodate at least 50 babies.
She attributed some of the causes of premature birth to emotional abuse, smoking, teenage pregnancies, and chronic diseases.
