By. Our reporter
The permanent secretary, ministry of health, Diana Atwine has today handed over two mobile maintenance truck to Masaka and Jinja regional referral hospitals which are to be used to repair medical equipment in the health facilities as well as other government owned facilities in the two respective districts.
Speaking at the handover ceremony today at the health ministry offices in Kampala, Dr. Atwine reminded the hospital heads to closely monitor the trucks for so as to handle the duties they have been assigned to.
Speaking to Masaka regional referral hospital director, Dr. Nathan Onyach and Dr. Edward Nkurunziza who heads Jinja regional referral hospital on how maintance has affected service delivery at their respective facilities, they were fast to reveal that a big number of medical equipment are laying idle in these facilities due to failure to repair them but with the coming of these mobile maintance trucks the heads are hopeful that service delivery will not be affected.
But they still sight gaps in the personnel to do the repairs whom they say are not enough with Masaka having only one bio medical engineer.
But the masaka hospital boss, Dr. Onyach recommends that more than two bio medical engineers are needed at the facility to do the works.
Dr. Onyach further reveals that government allocates UGX.160 million every year to cater for repairs of medical equipment which is not enough as the equipment are too many with other complicated to be repaired at the hospital which then calls for the hospitals to move the broken equipment to Kampala for repair which then calls for more time and resources as the work goes on stand still at the health facility
Each truck cost govt UGX.300 M with only four regional referral hospitals now having the truck out of the more than 10 referrals hospitals across the country.
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