Jinja Hospital ICU unit to start charging patients

The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Jinja Regional Referral Hospital that has remained non-functioning for eight years since it was commissioned in 2011 is set to start operations.

The 13-bed facility, equipped with a computer monitoring system will only be able to handle 4 patients for the start but the number will increase as repair works on the equipment continue.

A story that run on October 14th in the Daily Monitor revealed that the ICU at Jinja Referral hospital had not been in use for the last 8 years.

The special department in the hospital handles patients with severe or life threatening illness that require close monitoring by specialists.

Due to lack of trained personnel to run the equipment, it has stayed idle and got damaged.

Following the budget constraints the equipment could not be operationalised and the patients referred to the hospital are advised to go to Mulago hospital in Kampala.

Jinja hospital director, Dr. David Nkurunziza, said some of the equipment has been fixed but the units can only handle four patients in the meantime.

"We looked around for some money and we managed to fix some few equipment, so we are ready to start handling the patients who are in need of intensive care. We shall in the beginning be able to take charge of about four patients in our hospitals,"he said.

He said the hospital was unable to repair the equipment due to lack of funds that were not availed in the hospital budget.

He said the hospital will start charging patients to raise the money so that the unit is kept running.

“So I make an appeal to the public so when you come and meet this service be ready to pay. When we ask you to pay, don’t complain because if we were to give it for free for sure ,this service would run like fir one week and collapse,"he said.