Luwero Hospital administration is struggling to look after patients abandoned at the facility.
According to Luwero Hospital, at least 20 patients are abandoned at the facility per month. The patients are either accident victims transferred to the hospital by Police or others referred from the community health centers.
However, after treatment and discharge, patients fail to leave the facility or locate relatives to pick them up.
The latest victim is Margaret Nanyonjo aged around 70 years who is stranded at Luwero Hospital after being admitted there on 30th December 2023 after she was involved in an accident.
Ronald Ssonko the Medical Social officer at Luwero Hospital says that although Nanyonjo received treatment and was deemed medically fit to be discharged, she has failed to return home to date.
Ssonko adds that they have tried to interview Nanyonjo on the whereabouts of her relatives but she mentions various locations including Matugga, Kawolo Lugazi, and other villages in Buikwe district.
Ssonko says that in other cases, they have been able to look for relatives by linking up with Chairpersons of villages indicated on the National IDs but Nanyonjo was brought without any identities and unable to remember her exact place of residence.
Ssonko has appealed to the relatives of Nanyonjo to pick her up because they don’t have a budget to look after her.
Nanyonjo said that she has relatives in Nabbale and Nabuti villages in Buikwe district but she can’t recall how she reached Luwero hospital.
John Ojokuna the Luwero District Police Commander says that the force’s role is to evacuate victims from the scene and transfer them to a hospital where relatives are supposed to pick them.
He however noted that in the current case, the hospital should use its psychiatrists to interrogate Nanyonjo on the exact areas where she could have lived and get in touch with local governments thereto locate her relatives.
Recently the administrators of Luwero Hospital told URN that they were also struggling to handle the increasing number of unclaimed bodies dropped at the facility.
At least three dead bodies are dropped at Luwero Hospital per week by Police and these are mainly accident and murder victims.
In December 2023 Luwero Hospital Mortuary attendants dumped two decomposing bodies at Luwero Town Council offices after the authority failed to pay allowances to them to bury them.
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