Officials decry lack of resources to handle road accident victims

An accident victim at Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital. Authorities in Rwenzori West Sub-region have decried the lack of resources to treat accident victims. PHOTO | SCOVIA ATUHAIRE

What you need to know:

  • According to the 2020 annual police crime report for Rwenzori West Sub-region, for the last three years, the number of road crash victims has been increasing and health facilities capacity to respond to such emergencies is crippling.
  • The report states that in 2020, Rwenzori West Sub-region recorded 430 road crashes of which 162 were fatal, 180 serious, and 88 minor.

Authorities in Rwenzori West Sub-region have decried the lack of resources to treat accident victims.

According to the authorities, there has been an increase in the number of accident victims being admitted to health facilities in the sub-region but they are ill equipped to  treat the victims.

The districts include Bundibugyo, Kabarole, Kamwenge, Kyegegwa, Kyenjojo, Ntoroko, Bunyangabu, and Kitagwenda.

In Kyegegwa, Kyegegwa Hospital is the only health facility which attends to road accident victims.

However, Dr Martin Yefta, the officer-in-charge of the facility, said they lack supplies to treat road accident victims.

“We don’t have medicine in our district store for patients involved in road accidents like fluids, blood, transport coaches, plaster, human resource of trained teams, pain killers, among others,” he said in an interview on Tuesday.

Dr Yefta also said those with serious injuries are referred to Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital for further management.

He said boda boda riders make up the biggest number of road accident victims especially during the dry season.

He added that they admit five road accident victims a day while those with serious injuries are three in a month.

Dr Yefta said with the elevation of the health facility to a hospital status, he is optimistic that they will recruit more staff especially to work on emergency patients.

 “I am a surgeon doctor but still I have a skeleton staff. We are only 48 staff and yet the ceiling is supposed to be 186 for a hospital. I need more health workers especially trained staff on handling such emergencies,” he said.

The Bunyangabu District health officer, Dr Richard Obeti, said the main district health facility, Kibiito Health Centre IV, lacks an emergency room and ambulance to respond to emergencies and an X-Ray machine to diagnose victims.

Dr Obeti said serious cases are referred to Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital.

 “We don’t have a special ward for road crash victims. If we get them, we put them in the general ward with other patients. We also don’t have specialised health workers to attend to such patients,” he said in an interview last Friday.

When contacted yesterday, the director of Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital, Dr Alex Adaku, said he was in a meeting and was unable to comment on the issue by press time.

Police report

According to the 2020 annual police crime report for Rwenzori West Sub-region, for the last three years, the number of road crash victims has been increasing and health facilities capacity to respond to such emergencies is crippling.

The report states that in 2020, Rwenzori West Sub-region recorded 430 road crashes of which 162 were fatal, 180 serious, and 88 minor.

It further states that a total of 4,428 road accidents were as result of reckless driving.

The Rwenzori West Police spokesperson, Mr Vincent Twesige, said the biggest causes of road accidents are reckless driving and failure to follow road safety traffic rules.