As government moves to upgrade all health center IIs to health center IIIs across the country, Kamuda Health Center III in Soroti district has for the last one year been operating in darkness without power. Here all operations are done at night and in the dark and all patients in this facility even have no access to small torches. Despite attempts by the district authorities to install solar batteries that were vandalized, the facility has remained a nightmare. Rhoda Akullo is one of the patients who shared her plight. She says life becomes harder when one is admitted especially on labor and there is no light for the patient to be attended to. “On the behalf of the people of Kamuda Sub County, I appeal to the government to at least install for us some power here in the facility which can help us. Because when its dark like this, there is nothing which you can do. It is really very difficult to stay here when there is no power."
Daniel Eyigu the Chairperson LC III Kamuda Sub County tells me that this situation is alarming especially during delivery in the night. “This is Kamuda Health Center III and it is a complete facility with a general ward that also has a maternity section in it. The greatest challenge at the moment is that the midwife is performing deliveries at night when there is light. Sometimes she has to use a torch, these small torches that are bought from the nearby trading centers. If she doesn’t use a torch then she has to use a phone to help deliver babies. And that is a very great challenge, for the last 4 months we have been in darkness, the entire facility is in darkness. The district brought batteries to replace because this problem may have begun a year ago when the batteries ran down. But about 4 months ago, batteries were brought unfortunately those batteries didn’t last. I don’t understand how new batteries that were brought were unable to actually work for more than a month.”
Calvin Elenyu the Secretary Health and Education in Soroti District Local Government blamed the contractor by the Ministry of Health. “It is true that the solar system of Kamuda was broken but this solar system when we interacted with DHO some 1 month ago, he told us that this thermal system should be maintained by the suppliers who were contracted by the Ministry at the center. But it’s a little unfortunate that the situation is very burning and for sure we cannot really be able to say we are feeling any better about it.” Elenyu said the center should notify the district if they are failing to maintain the lighting system so that the district takes over.
“It is also our humble appeal that if the center has actually may be through the suppliers failed to maintain the systems, we better get to know such that we plan as a district. But for sure, for the last 3 months I have been going to Kamuda but really the problem is so recurring and persistent that these suppliers have not been able to come and electrify the problems. So the maternity wing is in darkness, OPD is in darkness and generally at night more so delivering becomes the main challenge because the midwives are using only torches and their phones to help women deliver at night. Which situation is very bad but we want to appeal to the center, in case they are not able to continue maintaining the lighting systems then for sure as the district we need to take it because it is budgeting time and we still have some ample time to put some of the things in the budget so that they are addressed.” Kamuda Health Center III serves a total population of over 15,000 people which has continuously challenged the inadequacy of drugs at the facility.
