Hospital seeks support over Covid stress
Dr Moses Muwanga (left), the executive director of Entebbe Grade B Hospital, receives a food pack from Mr Peter Moon of the Korean Association of Uganda, yesterday. PHOTO | STEPHEN OTAGE
By Stephen Otage
The management of Entebbe Grade B Hospital has asked government and goodwill partners to offer counselling and psychosocial services to patients and health workers affected by Covid-19.
Addressing journalists yesterday, Dr Moses Muwanga, the hospital executive director, said for the past six months, the referral facility has been handling the Covid-19 pandemic, both the health workers and other people get depressed when they test positive for the disease.
“We are spending a lot of time counselling people here. Many people are stressed; our staff are stressed. I call upon other associations to come and help. We need a lot of counselling services,” he said.
Dr Muwanga said the most affected are those under quarantine, including those returning from abroad. He said quarantine itself is stressful.
Dr Muwanga explained that health workers looking after the patients also get depressed due to the environment they work in since they are not allowed to go home.
Asked about the measures they are deploying to address the challenge, Dr Muwanga said for the last two weeks, they have been discharging all asymptomatic patients who test negative after 14 days to reduce congestion in the hospital.
He added that they allow health workers who have worked 14 days to take breaks with their families before resuming work.
Yesterday, the Korean Association of Uganda, the Korean Embassy and Teso Juice factory, visited the hospital to deliver lunch to the health workers as a gesture to appreciate their effort in fighting the pandemic.
