Patients shun Kamuli hospital on COVID-19 scare

Patients in Kamuli District are avoiding seeking treatment at the district’s general hospital following the designation of the outpatient ward as a Covid19 isolation centre.

MPs on the parliament task force on their tour in Kamuli.

Dr Fred Duku, the acting District Health Officer told the Parliamentary Technical Committee on Covid that ever since the services of the outpatient unit were suspended to create an isolation centre, the number of patients has dropped.  

“There is a lot of fear related to the Covid-19 pandemic that people have resorted to not coming to hospitals which is reducing service delivery in regards to health,” Duku said.

He added that this was affecting other health centres at sub county level since most of the health officials at these centres were not adequately trained to handle Covid.

Kamuli Municipality MP, Hon Rehema Watongola said that the pregnant women have also stopped attending antenatal clinics for fear of contracting the coronavirus at the hospital.  

She attributed this to the stigma associated with the contraction of the virus.
“In Kamuli Municipality, we have families that have lost children to malaria because they feared to take them to hospital. The lockdown also affected them as they could not get transport to take them to the hospital,” Watongola said.
Workers MP, Dr Sam Lyomoki appreciated the work done by the district task force and asked them to continue with the sensitization of masses.