Private health facilities turning away suspected COVID-19 patients

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Some private health facilities are turning away suspected COVID-19 patients, according to health practitioners.

According to Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) experts, persons with NCDs have in the recent weeks been sent away from hospitals without receiving care because they present with COVID-19 symptoms of fever and shortness of breath.

The claim comes days after Dr. David Katuntu succumbed to diabetes at Entebbe hospital after two private hospitals refused to give him any kind of care. According to a family member that Uganda Radio Network – URN has spoken to, health workers and security at both Kampala International Hospital-IHK and Norvik hospital refused to admit Katuntu because he had challenges with breathing, one of the symptoms of COVID-19.

His family says Katuntu who was in critical condition had to be driven to Entebbe hospital where he eventually breathed his last. NCD specialists now say that Dr. Katuntu’s experience is not a random one. Dr. Susan Nakireka, a doctor at Mengo hospital and also the head of the Uganda Diabetic Association says she has come close to losing patients because they were chased away from private hospitals because they were suspected to having COVID-19.

“A few weeks ago I was referred a patient who was hypertensive and diabetic. He had been sent away from a private hospital because they thought he had COVID-19. He told me all the health workers refused to attend to him. I put him on oxygen before he was transferred to a treatment facility,” says Dr. Nakireka.

Christopher Kwizera, the director of the Uganda Non-Communicable Disease Alliance says the lack of care at private hospitals is endangering the lives of people living with NCDs. Kwezira says the health ministry needs to intervene since persons with NCDs are more susceptible to getting infected.

Data from the health ministry shows that 60 percent amounting to over 3,000 cases that have tested positive for COVID-19 are people living with NCDs. Majority of the deaths that have been reported also had pre-existing conditions such as diabetes and hypertension.

Dr. Ian Clarke, the chairman of the International Medical Group which owns IHK says that private hospitals cannot be blamed following health ministry guidelines that have excluded private health facilities from treating COVID-19.

Dr. Grace Ssali Kiwanuka, the executive director of the Uganda Healthcare Federation says the situation is a complex one where while health facilities are mandated to offer triage care, they also need to take necessary precautions to make sure they are not exposed to COVID-19.

Dr. Kiwanuka further explains that hospitals need to be cautious as many members of staff like security personnel and accounting officers are being infected with the disease.

However the health ministry says that what the hospitals are doing is uncalled for. Dr. Charles Olaro, the director of clinical services a the ministry of health says that while all hospitals are supposed to be on high alert, they should offer help.

“Security gaurds are not health workers and should not man a triage station especially one of COVID-19. If someone appears at a hospital and they are suspected of having COVID-19, the least a hospital can do is to put this person in an isolation unit as tests are carried out,”  says Dr. Olaro.

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