Luuka’s mothers to wait many years for a marternity ward

Expectant mothers in Luuka District will have to wait longer bearing the ignominy of delivering on verandahs until government gets funds to construct a new maternity ward at Kiyunga health centre IV.

The area Member of Parliament for Luuka county John Bagoole has revealed that it may take some two more years for government to embark on maintenance works on the dilapidated facility.

Addressing residents of Bulanga village in Waibuga sub-county Luuka district about the health service delivery in the district yesterday, the centre receives about 15 expectant mothers.

This leaves many being unattended to to languish on the verandah.

Bagoole however said that he has cleared the bills for the repair of  the van he donated to the district during the 2011 parliamentary campaigns to serve as the district’s ambulance.

The ambulance was in 2012 crushed by the then in-charge of Kiyunga health centre Sr Margret Segonga and has since been in garage dashing all hopes of providing transport means to patients.

During his 2010 campaign trail, President Yoweri Museveni pledged to upgrade Kiyunga health centre IV to a fully fledged hospital to serve the then newly created district curved from Iganga District but the residents have up to date waited in vain.

Dr Matthias Wabwire Panyako, the officer in-charge of the facility, says they are always stranded with expectant mothers when the purported maternity ward is full.

“Many mothers have had to deliver on the verandah and we immediately discharge them because the facility cannot accommodate them all,” said Dr Wabwire.

The woes of Luuka’s referral hospital seem inumerable because apart from the maternity ward, the in-charge is also worried over lack of a morgue.

Wabwire says: “Immediately one dies, we assist the bereaved relatives to arrange for transporting the body to their respective village.”

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