Thousands of patients from different regions suffering from different illnesses have thronged Budaka health centre IV to receive free medical services.
Organized by Bulamu Health Care International the free medical camp is running for five days starting today 10th to 15th Feb 2020, targeting poor people in the villages.
Makay William Masereka, the Country Director Bulamu Health Care International, says their target is 3,000 patients treated in a day and over 13,000 at the end of the 5 day camp.
He says before holding such a camp they first conduct a site assessment benchmarking on the needs of the community, diseases trends, and cooperation of the district leadership.
He said this is the 17th medical camp since Bulamu started in 2016 and they have served over 137,000 patients in different districts.
According to Masereka, services offered include, general medicine, optomology services, dental services, cancer screening, ENT, maternity, health education, disease prevention, family planning, and surgery among others.
We don’t limit the service to Budaka people only but its open, “Already we have received patients from districts of Masindi, Kumi and Bugiri, and we expect more from other districts especially where we have been having the camps’’
The camp has a work force of 240 professional and of these 170 are health professionals.
He says some emergency cases that cannot be handled at the camp are referred to specialized health facilities like CURE, CORSU, orthopedic center, Uganda Cancer Institute, and to specialized personal doctors.
At the camp there were reports that 2 patients from the same family had collapsed dead while waiting for treatment.
However, by the time of filing this report 47 patients had been operated successfully.
Katooko Florence, a goiter patient, said she had given up with life after her family failed to raise 3.5 million shillings that doctors had asked for surgery.
Dr. Erisa Mulwani, the Budaka district health officer said, apart from earning some money the camp will improve on the skills and knowledge of some district health workers who have not been able to handle some cases.
RDC Budaka Martin Oroch warns the organizers to desist from using the camp to convey political messages.
He said no politician should claim that he/she has brought the free camp rather than government and its private partners.
Edited by David Tumusiime
