Africa-Press – Uganda. Patients at the Mulago National Referral Hospital have to wait longer for surgeries because the main theatre at Block B level one was temporarily closed after the sewer line burst on Monday, sources within the facility have revealed.
Ms Josephine Iradukunda, a resident of Kisoro District, told this newspaper that her brother was scheduled for an operation on Tuesday, but health officials informed them that he would be attended to on a later date due to some fault in the theatre.
She said they had been at the hospital for about four days.
Health workers at the hospital, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the repair was taking longer.
“Two days ago, we had some problems with the sewage line in the theatre. It is being worked on and we think operations will resume on Friday [today] or next week after the repair,” one of the health workers said.
Another colleague said the theatre was being cleaned and fumigated.
“We cannot have the patients in because they might get infections. Patients will be notified when everything is ready,” he said on Tuesday.
The hospital administrator, Mr David Nuwamanya, said: “Theatres like anything else undergo cleaning and fumigation depending on the situation. If it is the case that it is infectious, they close for disinfection and patients waiting is not a problem.”
“Those theatres are non-emergencies and patients can wait. If one needs an emergency, it is worked on in emergency theatres in Mulago Hospital,” he added.
The acting executive director of Mulago Hospital, Dr Rosemary Byanyima, said patients can be worked on in other theatres within the hospital.
“Mulago Hospital has 22 theatres, and if one has a fault, we use the others. The people concerned do the arrangement with the patients in the ward and the theatre,” she said.
Surgeries
When asked about how many operations can be carried out in a day, Dr Byanyima said they depend on the number of patients in the ward and the length of the operation.
“There are operations which we do and they last for eight hours, others are one hour, so the number of operations depends on the theatre list for the day,” Dr Byanyima said.
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