Gulu | At least 36 private health facilities in Gulu City are concerned about the high cost of medical waste disposal at the Gulu Regional Referral Hospital.
The facilities’ management vowed to avoid and keep medical waste at their facilities, including expired drugs.
Dr. Micheal Chankara, a drugs inspector for Gulu district and city, confirms that private health centres’ mismanagement of medical waste is a major issue.
Chankara adds that approximately 40% of the drugs in private health centres expire at some point due to a lack of proper storage facilities to keep drugs safe for an extended period of time. He adds that disposing of expired drugs has become extremely costly.
He notes that disposing of one kilogramme of expired drug is expensive because an individual private facility must transport it to Uganda Medical Stores at their own expense.
Chankara advises all private health facilities in Gulu to send a letter to the district and city health departments as soon as possible to dispose of their drugs before they expire in order to save money on medical waste disposal.
Christine Achan, Gulu city’s acting biostatistician, says they will continue to identify actual challenges and assess private sector-led facilities to link them to Referral Hospitals for proper waste management and data quality.
Achan adds that they sometimes get frustrated when trying to find active health centres. “They deny being included in the Referral systems; they work in isolation.”
According to Nicholas Opira, clinical team lead at Flama Health Uganda, many private companies still struggle with managing and disposing of medical waste effectively. “They need capacity building by empowering and teaching them about waste management.”
Opira also reveals that they pay shs80,000 per month to Gulu Regional Referral Hospital for medical waste disposal and donate drugs to other health facilities before they expire.
He advised other private health centres to purchase excess drugs that are frequently consumed by patients in order to avoid the cost of disposing of them in government facilities.
According to Racheal Kutegeka Oryem, regional business manager at C-Care (IMC) Gulu branch, the government has not adequately supported the private health sector in managing medical waste.
She also points out that managing medical waste is extremely expensive. “This region lacks a large incinerator to dispose of the large volume of medical waste.”
Local governments provide limited capacity building to the private health sector, which contributes to poor quality data reporting, she tells tndnews. “We will improve if we empower people.”
Dr. Daniel Okello, Gulu city health officer, stated that the city council will continue to support private health centres both physically and financially, regardless of the amount of funding available to empower staff and save patients’ lives in the region.
Discover more from tndNews, Uganda
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.