{UAH} Allan/Pojim/WBK: Magufulication Part 2:: After Mulago, Museveni storms Naguru hospital

http://www.observer.ug/news-headlines/43478-after-mulago-museveni-storms-naguru-hospital

After Mulago, Museveni storms Naguru hospital

Written by ZURAH NAKABUGO & RACHEAL NINSIIMA

President Museveni

President Museveni continued his unannounced visits to hospitals in Kampala on Wednesday, March 30, with the tour of the newly-built Naguru referral hospital.

Last Tuesday afternoon, the president trooped into Mulago hospital unannounced, stirring panic among the hospital leadership who had no chance to dust up the wards.

During that visit, the president got firsthand accounts of the patients' grim experiences at the national referral hospital. The president arrived at Naguru hospital at 8am, and sat with patients at the casualty ward, which handles emergencies.

"He saw all the nurses, doctors and other technical staff who arrived late at work. He later moved to the casualty ward, intensive care unit, labour wards and other wards," a source familiar with the visit said.   

At Mulago hospital, Museveni, accompanied by only two bodyguards, began his afternoon tour in the cancer institute. Insider sources said surprised doctors at the institute only saw the president in the compound greeting patients. The nurses and doctors, according to the source, panicked thinking the president had gone for treatment or to visit a relative. 

"Some of us, it was our first time to see him physically and he looked so light in the face. He didn't talk so much with the administrators, he was targeting specific areas to see and he went there directly," a source said.

The source also added that when people saw him without heavy security, they started whispering that Museveni had started copying the on-the-ground work ethic of President John Magufuli of Tanzania who has made similar visits to government departments since he came into the job last November.

From the cancer institute, Museveni used the bigger corridor from upper Mulago to lower Mulago, where he found a nurse and asked her to direct him to the emergency ward.

Sources said the nurse was shocked to see the president hold her hand. She pointed him to the emergency ward in 2B. In 2B, Museveni found two accident victims brought in by the police patrol but left unattended to by the doctors.

"Who is attending to these patients,'' the president asked?

The doctors who were seated in their offices came running and said the patients had just been brought and they were attending to them though they were a bit far from them.

The president, according to sources, asked about the free government mosquito nets for the patients since he wasn't seeing them on the beds. He also asked to see the toilets and he was shown the dilapidated toilets in the emergency ward.

Sources said, Dr Byarugaba Baterana, the hospital director, later told the president that patients don't have mosquito nets because they have a small budget compared to the number of patients handled by the hospital.

The hospital spokesperson Enock Kusasira said the president was very happy with the hospital services, the hygiene and how doctors are handling patients.

"He entered one of the toilets in the emergency ward, opened the taps and said water is running and the pressure is good," Kusasira said.

"When he [Museveni] found many mothers seated on the floor at 5B and asked why, we told him they are nearer to the Intensive Care Unit because they gave birth to premature babies and they are called in regularly to breastfeed babies," he said

He said Museveni also visited the general medical ward and interacted with health workers, administrators and attendants. 
zurah@observer.ug 

After Mulago, Museveni storms Naguru hospital

http://www.observer.ug/news-headlines/43478-after-mulago-museveni-storms-naguru-hospital

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