Panic has engulfed wards and medical workers at Mukono General Hospital after their a health worker at the facility succumbed to COVID-19.
William Mule, the coordinator of laboratory technicians in Mukono district passed away on Wednesday morning while being transferred from Kiruddu hospital to Mulago National Referral Hospital for further management.
His death has triggered fear among health workers who are now scared of attending to patients without full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
Harriet Nabawonga, a Laboratory Technician, who received and escorted the deceased from Mukono hospital, says it has been a bad experience for them after failing to transport one of their own to receive better management in time.
According to Nabawonga, they spent over four hours looking for an ambulance to take the deceased to Kiruddu and five more hours to move him to Mulago National Referral Hospital despite his deplorable state.
On average at least eight people test for Covid-19 at Mukono general hospital each day. While in the entire district 80 people are tested at the designated screening centers.
At the facility, Nabawonga says at least two people test positive for COVID-19 everyday. Mukono has so far registered 172 COVID-19 positive cases.
Ritah Nakandi, the Infection Prevention and Control-IPC Focal Person at Mukono General Hospital, says they have severally appealed to the authorities to provide them with sufficient PPE and other related requirements in vain.
Reports have also confirmed that the hospital has relaxed the implementation of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) with no soap for washing hands at the entrance. Security at the gate also didn’t have temperature guns, some of the patients had no face masks and social distancing is also not observed.
This means that suspected Covid-19 cases share the same waiting space with other patients.
