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The Monitor (Kampala)
February 5, 2003
Posted to the web February 5, 2003
Chris Obore
Kampala
Surgeons at Mbale Hospital use torches to light the main theatre during power cuts.
Doctors at the regional referral hospital have told The Monitor that they use torches during surgery because there is no reliable back-up power for the main theatre.
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Dr. Jaffar Byalyejjusa, the medical superintendent, agrees it happens "but not routinely".
"There is a time when we didn't anticipate power would go off. Doctors used torches but it is not routine. That particular day I was away in Kampala," Dr. Byalyejjusa said yesterday.
He said the hospital's generators were too old.
The generators are started manually, and it takes time to switch them on.
That is when surgeons are forced to improvise by using torches, Dr Balyejjusa said.
But other hospital staff said the generator has been neglected.
Sometimes it simply lacks fuel, one said.
The more efficient generator is reserved for the private wing.
A doctor recalls a power cut in the middle of an operation when they were forced to use a torch to complete the complicated process.
"Surprisingly the ones we operate without electricity survive miraculously. Sometimes the power goes off when we are about to complete the operation," the doctor said.
But power cuts are just one in a long list of complaints about services at Mbale Hospital.
Patients complain that medical workers have "over-commercialised" all services meant to be free.
Medics reportedly demand money before attending to patients. There is also an acute shortage of drugs.
Many patients buy prescribed drugs from private pharmacies and drug shops - some operated by medical staff from Mbale Hospital.
Dr. Byalyejjusa could not rule out extortion or theft of medicines by medical staff.
"Somebody can ask for money from you because you are desperate. I can't rule it out, it can happen � it's possible," he said.
He quickly added that the hospital generally receives inadequate drugs.
"We get between Shs 40-50m per month and a third of it is for drugs. Many times the drugs we buy do not even take two weeks, so patients buy drugs from out," he said.
The medical superintendent said he had, since taking charge, clamped down on the theft and sale of drugs within the hospital.
"There were canteens in the hospital where drugs were sold to patients. We closed the canteens because sometimes the drugs sold to patients were kept poorly. They were even hidden inside charcoal and posho [maize flour]," he said.
The Monitor had spent
