Patients stuck as Masaka’s new CT scan breaks down
The Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Health, Dr Diana Atwine (left), officially launches a CT scan machine to Masaka Regional Referral Hospital on September 12. She is flanked by hospital and ministry officials. PHOTO | MALIK FAHAD JJINGO
What you need to know:
- The machine was launched in September, raising questions about its quality.
Patients seeking Computerised Axial Tomography Scan (CT scan) services at Masaka Regional Referral are stuck after a newly acquired machine broke down two months after its installation.
The CT scan machine, procured by the Ministry of Health, according to sources has not been in operation for two weeks now. As a result, patients in need of CT scan services are referred to private facilities in Masaka and Kampala as was the case before when the hospital lacked the machine.
A CT scan machine is used to identify a disease or injury within various regions of the body, it is also used to detect tumors or lesions within the abdomen, identify heart disease or abnormalities, and locate injuries, blood clots leading to stroke, excess fluids and other conditions such as pneumonia.
According to the hospital management, the supplier of the machine has already been notified and has already made an assessment of the fault, promising to fix the problem in two weeks.
“The supplier has given us assurance that the required spare parts can be secured and we are waiting for that to happen,” Mr Charles Tumushiime, the Masaka hospital administrator, said by telephone yesterday.
This comes at a time health activists are contesting the fees being charged for CT scan services at the hospital, which they say are exorbitantly high.
Patients who want brain scans pay between Shs120,000 and Shs150,000, Shs200,000 for the chest, and Shs200,000 for the abdomen.
When officially commissioning the CT scan machine in September, Dr Diana Atwine, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Health, directed the hospital management to give a waiver to patients seeking CT scan services, and in extreme cases, she said patients from impoverished families should access the services free of charge.
Mr Swaibu Makumbi Sulambaaya, the chairperson of Masaka Hospital Patients Association, said: “We are aware they have been charging some fees from patients, let part of that money be used to have the machine repaired in time so that the services can be restored.”
Mr Paul Mubiru, one of the patients who wanted to get CT scan services, said:“ Whenever I go to the hospital the room is closed and am told that has been the case since last week,and now I have to go to Mbarara , which will require more .”
Mr Charles Matovu a father of a nine-year-old boy who has a swelling in his stomach, said he has been advised to take him to Kampala.
“If I could get the scan done in Masaka I would have saved the money I will spend to go to Kampala to conduct the scan to establish if my son has cancer or another illness that is making his stomach swell,” he said.
The CT scan machine
This is the first CT scan at Masaka hospital since the facility was opened in 1929.
Masaka Hospital serves eight districts – Masaka, Rakai, Lyantonde, Lwengo, Sembabule, Bukomansimbi, Kalungu and Kalangala, taking care of more than two million people.
Being on the busy Mombasa- ¬ Kampala -Mbarara-Kigali highway makes the hospital the first point of call for patients, mainly accident victims from Burundi, Rwanda, DR Congo and Tanzania. Consequently, the hospital’s average daily contact with patients is about 2,000.
