Masaka Regional Referral Hospital has temporarily closed six departments to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among its staff. The units are; ENT/Eye Department and Dental clinic, the Surgical and Pediatrics Departments, Diabetic and Hypertensive Clinic and the Maternal and Child Health Unit-MCH.
According to the notice issued to all staff, the hospital management decided to close the departments as a measure to stopping and reducing the spread of Covid-19 among staff.
The hospital has now preferred to redeploy staffs from the closed departments, for purposes of ensuring their safety from the virus.
Edward Kabuye the Masaka Regional Referral Hospital Principal Administrator says that they are currently receiving a very high number of Covid-19 cases, which increases the risk of transmitting the infection to both their staffs and other people that show up to seek health services.
He advised patients who would wish to get medical services to access services in lower health facilities until the situation normalizes.
Kabuye says they found it necessary to focus their efforts and available resources on vigorous public sensitization, monitoring of patients under home-based care and as well as building enough capacities to attend to critical cases whose numbers he says are increasing.
The hospital has six Covid-19 patients who are critically ill in the Intensive Care Unit-ICU, 114 on home-based care, while they have registered nine deaths in two weeks.
The closure of the units according to Doctor Nathan Onyaki, the Hospital Director is also going to provide the hospital with an opportunity to re-orient the staff on proper case management and safety.
According to Dr Onyaki, the hospital is now waiting for a team of health workers who had gone for refresher training on Covid-19, to return and reinforce the remaining workforce and harness their capacities in patients handling.
