
Mulago Hospital building
Patients requiring dialysis at Mulago National Referral Hospital have said there is increased waiting time for the life-saving medical procedure after the management allegedly suspended the provision of this care at night.
Dialysis is the use of a special machine to remove waste and excess fluid from the body when the kidney is not functioning properly.
Patients and caretakers told this publication at the dialysis unit yesterday that the healthcare workers there were providing care to some patients at night because of the large numbers of patients handled there.
“I arrived here at 6:30 am today but my patient has not been handled yet. This has not been happening, the cause of the delay is the suspension of the night shift because there are so many patients that need to be handled,” a frustrated caretaker, who preferred anonymity to express himself freely, said.
“This is not about the payment because we paid money yesterday [Monday]. Some people came here last [Monday] night but they have not yet been handled up to now,” the caretaker added.
Another patient claimed that the management suspended the night shift because of rumours that the health workers were using the opportunity to extort money from patients.
“It was wrong for the management to rely on rumours. Even at night, we pay the same charges – Shs150,000 per dialysis session. These are committed healthcare workers; administrators are frustrating their work,” the patient, who also preferred anonymity to speak freely, said.
When Monitor approached the Patient Affairs Desk of the facility, the officer questioned who granted us permission to come to her office and declined to comment.
The hospital administrator couldn’t be reached for comment as our repeated calls and messages had attracted no response by press time. But highly placed sources within the facility said the management received reports that some health workers were extorting money from patients who were coming for dialysis at night.
The source also said the management is concerned that during the night shift, sometimes no doctor is supervising the work of nurses and other care providers at the unit, which may “become a serious issue” if a patient dies during dialysis at night.
According to a 2022 report ,’ which was published in the scientific journal Kidney360, the prevalence of Chronic Kidney Disease in Uganda ranges from two percent to seven percent, and up to 15 percent among patients with HIV.
BACKGROUND
The cost of dialysis varies from one facility to another depending on the severity of the kidney disease, the type of machine in use and the availability of waivers for patients. Some (private) health facilities charged around Shs500,000 per session. The management of Mulago hospital says they charge patients to get money for maintaining equipment due to limited funds from the government.