Mulago rejects advance booking for ICU beds
The deputy director of Mulago hospital, Dr Rose Mary Byanyima, during an interview on November 26. PHOTO/ DAVID.
What you need to know:
- Uganda is in phase four of the pandemic with widespread community infections.
- This has seen the number of Covid-19 cases rise leading to many treatment centres being overwhelmed and ICUs filling up quickly.
Mulago National Referral Hospital management have said they have rejected many requests and offers from corporate organisations, who were seeking to pay for advance booking for space in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in case their people contract Covid-19 in future.
The deputy director of Mulago Hospital, Dr Rose Mary Byanyima, told Daily Monitor in an interview that many of these companies and sometimes powerful individuals ask to have a private wing reserved for them and their people.
“I always tell them this disease is an equaliser. When you come in and you need oxygen, we shall not give you a private room. We shall put you where oxygen is and you can be monitored until such a time when you are stable. We may need to observe you for another two days after that, before taking you to a private room,” Dr Byanyima said on December 31.
Uganda is in phase four of the pandemic with widespread community infections. This has seen the number of Covid-19 cases rise leading to many treatment centres being overwhelmed and ICUs filling up quickly.
Many have died due to lack of space for admission in ICUs or High Dependency Units (HDU).
Last week, two doctors succumbed to Covid-19 and one allegedly failed to get a bed in the ICU.
In response to the lack of ICU space for patients, Dr Byanyima said: “You do not improvise ICU beds. You either have it or you don’t. We use simple terms as bed but it’s not only about the bed. There are many things around it. You have infusion pumps, ventilators, monitors…and we make sure all those are fixed.”
She further said even healthcare workers who get infected are admitted in the same wards with other patients.
Dr Richard Idro, the president of Uganda Medical Association, said from March 2020 to December 30, 2020, their record showed that 1,744 health workers contracted Covid-19. Unfortunately, 17 succumbed to the disease and six were doctors.
“We know that patients may show up, for example, those coming to the heart institute and the patient tests positive for Covid-19. So wherever you are handling patients, you have to be cautious. All our staff got training to be alert,” he said.
