Jinja hospital director calls for more staff at the ICU

Jinja, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Director of Jinja Regional Referral Hospital, Alfred Yayi has called for the need to improve staffing levels at the intensive care unit.

Yayi says that the ICU is fully equipped with 10 beds and each bed requires three standby nurses, however, there are only six nurses attached to the unit.

Yayi notes that they handle an average of about 2 to 3 patients at the ICU weekly, with some of them being referrals from lower health facilities across the Busoga sub-region. He adds that whenever they are overwhelmed by patients, they are referred to Mulago National Hospital.

According to Yayi, following the recently concluded cardiology surgery camp at the hospital, several health workers were exposed to the basics of offering critical healthcare services and some of them are using these skills to support the skeleton staff at the ICU.

Yayi also notes that they are partnering with different hospitals in the district and health center IV staff to prioritize training in critical healthcare, which will minimize risks triggering late referrals of critically ill patients.

He says that they have finalized plans of deploying both a standby physician and two anesthesiologists, who will be stationed at the ICU starting this August, which will improve quality healthcare.

A nurse who spoke to us on condition of anonymity says that the expansion and renovation of the ICU, coupled with fitting in modern equipment early this year provided health workers with better patient management, however, low staffing levels are hindering the treatment of patients.

She wants players in the healthcare sector to streamline referrals, with clear policies, deterring non-equipped hospitals from handling critically ill patients, which will redeem the necessary time required to save patients’ lives.

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