Alfred Okello, the in-charge of case management attached to St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor says that shortage of PPE in the facility is overstretching their capacity after activating the treatment Centre.
Health centres in Gulu District are experiencing a shortage of personal
protective equipment (PPE) in the fight against the Coronavirus (COVID-19)
pandemic.
The COVID-19 Gulu Task Force designated Gulu Regional Referral Hospital and St.
Mary’s Hospital, Lacor as isolation and treatment centres. The two hospitals
are complemented by the UPDF 4th Division military hospital.
Alfred Okello, the in-charge of case management attached to St. Mary’s Hospital
Lacor says that shortage of PPEs in the facility is overstretching their
capacity after activating the treatment Centre.
Bishop Loum Janani, the in-charge of case management at Gulu Regional Referral
Hospital disclosed that the facility has an insufficient supply of PPE that includes
disposable N95 masks among others.
Cue in: “These PPE are…..
Cue out: …need more PPE.”//
According to Janani, the facility needs more vital PPE supplies like
face-masks, medical gloves and isolation gowns to manage the sudden, unexpected
increase in patient volume that would otherwise exceed the present capacity.
Cue in: “We also need…..
Cue out: …the nearest point.”//
The District Health Officer, Yoweri Idiba, says that across all the 43
government, private and not-for-profit health centres in the district,
PPE remains in shortage threatening healthcare services against COVID-19.
Cue in: “And one of …..
Cue out: …on those masks.”//
According to Idiba, the National Medical Stores (NMS) last delivered supplies to Gulu in April and more supplies are expected in June.
Currently, there are 14 confirmed active cases of COVID-19
patients receiving treatment at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital and over 50
suspected cases in institutional quarantine centres.
According to the Ministry of Health’s PPE stock
supplies status for the last week of April 2020, Uganda's PPE stocks are
critically low and what is available cannot be enough for the country’s
COVID-19 response plan for the next three months.
This
has been attributed to global shortages increased by global demand and ensuing
constrained supply of critical logistics for COVID-19. There is growing demand
world over for gloves, surgical masks, surgical N96 respirators, face shields,
protective gear and test kit.
Ochola's journalism career begun from Radio King 90.2 FM in Gulu around 2009, and Radio Rupiny 95.7 Fm under Vision Group in 2012. He also reported for Mighty Fire 91.5 Fm, Kitgum in 2015 before joining Wizarts Foundation in 2017.
He has been reporting for Uganda Radio Network (URN) since 2017 before being posted as Bureau Chief Kitgum, and later Gulu between 2018 - 2021. Currently, he reports from Parliament.
