The leader of the Opposition in Parliament Mathias Mpuuga has been left in shock after he discovered that residents in Lwengo District are grappling with access to safe drinking water.
Residents in recent times fetch water in an open pond making them susceptible to waterborne diseases yet the general hospital has also become a pain.
In a bid to perform his oversight role, the Leader of Opposition in Parliament Mathias Mpuuga returned to Districts in greater Masaka starting off in Lyantonde District in the company of other political leaders. The focus was set on service delivery in hospitals, roads, schools and access to safe water.
Mpuuga started by engaging the local district leaders to find out whether the community has access to government services and whether there are any limitations.
In their engagement Fred Muhanji, the District chairman, candidly revealed that the district administration is challenged by the poor road infrastructure, water scarcity and the general hospital mortuary is in a sorry state which has left many stranded.
While in Lyantonde General Hospital, the legislators were disappointed by its poor state with visible structural deterioration, yet it is still burdened by patients from other districts including Ssembabule, Lwengo, and parts of Rakai district as they only host Health Centre IV.
From Lyantonde, the Leader of the Opposition headed to Lwengo District where the District Chairman, Ibrahim Kitatta and the locals brought to his attention the worrying state of water sources. Kitatta told Mpuuga that locals share water with both domestic and wild animals as the only available source is a pond whose water can hardly be differentiated from Mud. This left the legislators worried over a likely disease outbreak.
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Mpuuga's commitment to addressing these issues extended to Lyakibiriizi Primary School, recently featured in our news due to its poor state. Here, Mpuuga and other leaders donated a much-needed water tank to ease access to safe drinking water.
Mpuuga concluded his tour by visiting Masaka Regional Referral Hospital and Kiyumba Hospital in Masaka city and Masaka district.
Here, he expressed concern over the patients increasingly being charged for access to health services, which has rendered many helpless. The LoP released a statement below;
"Masaka Regional Referral Hospital serves a catchment area of approximately 2.4 million. The gov't has constructed new buildings, but the staffing levels remain low at less than 50%. Instead of the required 18 specialist doctors per department, there are only 2.
This being a taxpayer-funded hospital, all services are meant to be free. Unfortunately, critical services like CT Scan are paid for - Shs 120,000!!
Emergency cases of patients who cannot raise the amount have to wait for a certain committee to sit and determine which patients should get a waiver!!
This is so because the Ministry of Health Uganda has failed to provide ably facilitate the hospital to become fully functional. Out of its annual budget of Shs 5.4 billion, the hospital gets a paltry Shs 1.5 billion."
