Staff Shortage Hits Mental Health Unit

http://ugandaradionetwork.com/a/story.php?s=55024

Patients at the Mental Health unit at Fort Portal regional hospital are missing out of treatment following shortage of medical workers at the unit. The unit serves patients from Kasese, Kyejonjo, Ntoroko, Bundibugyo, Kamwenge and Kibale districts.

The unit with more than 80 in and out patients, is being manned by only two workers, the in-charge and one nurse.

Martin Ibanda, the in-charge of the unit, says that seven staff that had been posted to the unit worked for only a month and left for other jobs while the others were transferred and have never been replaced. According to Ibanda, some of the reasons why the staff left were hostility of the patients, poor accommodation and inadequate pay.

Ibanda says that the unit receives more than twenty patients everyday, who should be attended to, but since there are no medical workers, they are often turned away.

//Cue in: “this is serious…
//Cue out:  “there wasn’t replacement.”//

When our reporter visited the unit on Thursday morning, there were more than thirty patients waiting to be treated. Some of the patients told the reporter that they had waited for more than three hours to get treatment.

Faith Kamukama, whose son is mentally ill, says that she has been coming to the health unit for the past one week but her son has never been treated.  Kamukama says that she plans to take her son to Butabika Hospital in Kampala.

When Uganda Radio Network contacted the hospital administration, Dr Kyebambe Kaliisa, the acting medical superintendent, said that the matter is being addressed urgently.  He said that they have written to the district service commission to recruit fifteen health workers to work at the unit.

Kaliisa says that intern students from Fort Portal School of Clinical Officers and from Fort Portal Institute of Nursing will temporarily attend to the patients.  

 Abuse of drugs among the youths in the Ruwenzori region has been blamed for the surge in mental cases at the mental health unit. Statistics at the unit indicate that the 15% of the patients referred to the clinic are habitual consumers of narcotics. Most of the addicts are aged between 18 and 25 years.

There have been several attempts by the districts in the region to pass bylaws on the consumption and growing marijuana, which is common in the region, but they have failed.