Webuye District Hospital decry shortage of staff

Written by Rosemary Wachiye 2011-08-19 17:12:00 Read 273 Times

Webuye District Hospital is appealing to the government to increase the number of medical personnel and stock enough drugs in public health centers in the area. According to the hospital’s Medical Superintendent Dr. Bitta Ceaser, the quality of care is affected by a work force shortage that is overwhelmed in handling the huge capacity of patients.  “Most of the doctors have to work extra hours to at least reach out to most of the patient on time,” said Dr. Bitta. Adding that they are doing their best but the hospital has about 140per cent to 150per cent of patients requiring medical attention which is 50per cent higher above what they can manage. “We would like to call upon the government to employ more nurses and medical officers to enable us serve the people well,” said Dr. Bitta Amid complaints from the area residents that the patient wards are always congested, Dr.Bitta stated that they have a plan to construct a bigger ward that will be able to carry the large capacity of patients hence help to solve the problem. He also said that he envisaged a better environment for patients and better facilities if only the government would come forth through the ministry of Health and Sanitation to fund the expansion of the hospital wards and purchase of more equipments. “We are limited on the services we offer because of the lack of enough facilities in the hospital hence we can’t help in all medical emergencies and can only offer basic x-rays and basic ultrasound,” said He said he would like the government to intervene because the funding from the Community Development Fund of Sh 200,000 is not enough to cater for the construction of the new ward and above all as a district hospital it deserves to get more than the other sub-district hospital because of the many patients they serve. Dr.Bitta highlighted on the new method of preserving dead bodies that they will adapt soon which is known as embalmment that is affordable and preserves for a longer period and above all leaves the bodies with no bad stench. “We will start up the embalmment process of preserving bodies and I believe its time we moved away from freezers that preserve for a short time and produces bad stench ,” said Dr.Bitta The embalmment cost only Sh1000 which is quite affordable to most citizens and the body can stay as long as two years without decay. Webuye District Hospital is the only hospital in the region that produces its own oxygen inside the hospital parameters to be used on patients, it also offers bio-chemist tests and soon will be among the first to offer the embalmment services. He dismissed the claims that Webuye Medical Training Institute students are the ones who attend to patients in the hospitals and vowed that at no particular incidence are the students left alone to attend to patient without supervision by a medical officer. “We may be lacking enough staff but the MTC students are strictly here for learning purposes and they are always under supervision in order to be allowed to attend to a patient,” said Dr.Bitta.