Dr. Michael Mwanga, the Director Soroti Regional Referral Hospital, says they are now limiting every patient to one attendant. He revealed that they have already issued notices to all the wards and are awaiting action on Monday evening.
Soroti Regional
Referral Hospital management plans to decongest the hospital as one of the preventive
measures against Corona virus. It comes following the confirmation of the first corona case in the
country.
Most of the wards in Soroti Regional Referral
Hospital are crowded with patients and the attendants. In the evenings, some
patients and their attendants spend nights in the corridors and verandahs due
to limited space.
Dr. Michael Mwanga, the Director Soroti Regional Referral Hospital, says they
are now limiting every patient to one attendant. He revealed that they have
already issued notices to all the wards and are awaiting action on Monday evening.
He explains that the issue
has been discussed with the security team and other stakeholders to ensure that
patients and attendants don’t get infected in case of a Corona virus outbreak.
//Cue in “You know the culture...
Cue out...it is better”//
In 2014, Soroti Regional Referral Hospital enforced a policy on One Patient-
One Attendant following congestion in the facility.
However, the situation has
since returned to its original position over the years. Neither security
personnel nor the medical workers in the hospital have been concerned with the
situation lately.
In a related incident,
Police have rescued three women from Orwadai Village in Soroti Sub County who were
found locked in their house.
The women, according to Soroti Resident District
Commissioner, William Wilberforce Tukei, returned from a business trip in Kenya
over the weekend and decided to stay indoors due to fear of mixing up with the
community.
Their neighbors got
concerned and threatened to break into the house, suspecting the women to have
carried in the deadly Corona Virus. Police had to intervene and whisk away the
women away from the angry community.
Tukei told URN that there is a lot of
anxiety in the community on COVID-19, something he notes is being handled.
/Cue in “Arriving from curiosity...
Cue out...isolated places”//
In Atutur Hospital in Kumi district, patients fled on Monday morning when
another businesswoman, who had just returned from a business trip to South Sudan,
showed up at the facility with flu.
It took the intervention of the security
personnel to calm down the situation.
