By Lazaro Apunyo
The community of Moroto district and Municipality have expressed growing concern over absence of functional X-ray and Ultrasound machines, which has exacerbated their health access challenges.
This critical gap in diagnostic equipment according to them, has left thousands of patients from the Karamoja sub-region in medical limbo, facing delays, misdiagnoses, and costly referrals to Matany hospital in Napak district.
This was raised during a community Barraza held at the hospital premises on Friday where members of the community raised concern over the difficulties they face in accessing quality health services.
They noted that broke down one year ago while the Ultrasound scan malfunctioned early this year due to rampant power blackout and have never been replaced.
Rev. Fr. John Baptist Aleper of St Philip’s Cathedral Moroto said lack of functional X-ray and Ultrasound scan machines at the hospital, has left a pinch on those in need of such services.
“Due to lack of X-ray, patients in need of X-ray and scanning services are being referred to private health facilities and Matany hospital in Napak district and later return with the report for analysis and treatment,” said Fr. Aleper.
Abraham Sagal an elder from Napak district said that despite enhanced service delivery at the hospital, there are a lot of gaps which need to be addressed by the ministry of health.
In his response Dr. Stephen Pande, the hospital director said that the ministry had promised them a new digital X-ray and Ultrasound scan machines, which have not yet been delivered.
In regard to the poor state of the mortuary which Pande described as a mere storage for dead bodies.
He explained that “The mortuary is simply non-funded but the ministry is considering identifying funds so they can set up a modern mortuary unit”.
Pande also explained that the withdrawal of USAID support affected the operations in the health facility and most of the health workers under the project were stopped from work.
He said that suspension of the USAID support affected 44 health care workers and they could not offer services anymore which has affected service delivery at the hospital.
The Ministry of health performance for 2025, shows that the client satisfaction has dropped to 79.4 percent compared to 92.3 percent in January after Donald Trump withdrew USAID support to African countries.
However, Dr, Pande said that they are now trying everything possible to bridge the gaps and regain their momentum of delivering quality health services to the community.
Listen to us online via: https://www.radiocomnetu.org/etoilakaramoja
For Advertisement and News call or send SMS to 0787551001 or WhatsApp +256-787-289-992/+256-775-907-140 or email: eetoilnewsdesk@gmail.com/vokradio22@gmail.com
