900 beat Covid-19 at Soroti hospital 

A total of 900 patients, who had contracted Covid-19, have healed from the virus in Soroti Regional Referral Hospital, according to  authorities.
The facility, which has handled 1,113 patients since last year, is the designated treatment centre for Covid-19 patients from all the districts of  Teso Sub-region.

 Dr Wilson Etolu, the head of the Covid-19 Treatment Unit, told Daily Monitor at the weekend that of the 1,113 patients, seven have been transferred to Mulago while 47 have since succumbed to the virus since March 2020.
By Saturday,  he said 45 critically-ill patients were on oxygen, 46 were moderate cases, and about 200 mild patients were being managed under home-based care.

 Dr Etolu said it is traumatising to see Covid-19 patients die due to lack of oxygen and other basic requirements.
Soroti hospital oxygen plant pumps a total of five oxygen cylinders every two hours. Each person consumes two cylinders in an hour,  according to authorities.  
The hospital management also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Oxygas in Kyambogo University, Kampala,  to supply an additional 30 cylinders of oxygen daily.
Dr Etolu recommends that the government upgrades their oxygen plant to produce at least 50 cylinders per hour to address the shortage.

“Piped oxygen is reliable and cheaper than gas cylinders and it will help to save more lives,” he explained.
It’s expensive to buy oxygen and gas cylinders every now and then from the manufacturers but we propose that since there’s an oxygen plant at Soroti hospital, let it be upgraded to enable quality production of the gas per hour,” Dr Etolu said.
“Our oxygen plant does not rest, it pumps oxygen every minute because almost all patients we have need oxygen,’’ he added. 

Teso Parliamentary Group intervenes
Meanwhile, members of Teso Parliamentary Group (TPG), in a meeting convened at the weekend raised Shs70m towards equipping the Covid-19 unit at the hospital.
Mr Patrick Okabe, the interim chairperson for TPG of the 11th Parliament, said they received communication from the hospital through the State minister for Works, Mr Musa Ecweru, that the facility had been hit by shortage of oxygen and other basic requirements for Covid-19 management.

“We had to contribute to supplement government’s efforts towards the fight against Covid. We raised a total of Shs70 million. The Vice President, Ms Jessica Alupo, made a contribution of Shs5 million and the Deputy Speaker, Ms Anita Among, donated 10 standard medical beds and 10 mattresses…,” Mr Okabe said.
Mr Musa Ecweru, who represented Ms Alupo and Ms Among, assured the MPs that they would work hand-in-hand to lobby more government donations to the hospital.
He said in a couple of days, the Vice President would be delivering a consignment of 60 beds to be used at the Covid-19 unit.