By FELIX AINEBYOONA & SYLIVIA KATUSHABE
Posted
Monday, February 29
2016 at
02:00
Mbarara. Medical workers at the children ward in Mbarara Regional Referral hospital have decried the number of premature babies born at the hospital.
Dr Elias Kumbakumba, the in-charge of the children’s ward, said they register more than 100 premature babies every month. He said every week, the hospital registers at least 25-30 premature babies and at least four every day.
Dr Kumbakumba was speaking during the handover of two incubators worth Shs20 million donated by Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) to the TOTO Ward.
He further said even if they have incubators, Mbarara hospital has limited space where they can be placed and that there are few nurses to man the equipment since each needs its own full time nurse.
“Our biggest challenge is lack of nurses to take care of the overwhelming number of premature babies. The ratio should be 1:2 but now you find a nurse taking care of 30 babies since we have only 10 Nurses in the Toto Ward, which is not good because every baby should have its own nurse. We also do not have reliable electricity supply which means that these incubators will not function well,” said Dr Kumbakumba.
He said the incubators need trained people to repair them in case they are damaged yet the hospital does not have the personnel.
Ms Sheila Nyamwire, the KCB customer service officer, said: ‘’We as Kenya Commercial Bank are in a drive to give as many premature babies as possible a chance at life through the donation of infant incubators to various health centers across the country.”
editorial@ug.nationmedia.com
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