Pader district news. Sunday 12th July 2021
Government ambulances that were donated to many districts parked.
As pertaining to the situation at which the covid-19 is rapturing the whole world, Pader has a district in Uganda that is one of the affected areas as well.
Recently, the general public has raised an alarm on the scarcity of referrals which is crippling the referral processes to the regional referral hospital in Gulu and other hospitals like Kalongo General hospital, Lira regional hospital among others.
Pader district had an ambulance that used to refer the sick to obtain health services from the required facilities. After a serious lobby from our MPs, the government of Uganda gave some of the district's ambulances to aid in managing referrals.
Pader was among the districts that received the ambulance from the government making it have one government ambulance.
Currently, Pader has got five (5) ambulances in total. That is;
Government ambulance.
Tekworo medical health centre. (2 ambulances)
Hon. Christopher Komakechs’ ambulance.
Uganda Police ambulance.
All these ambulances have charges attached to them uniquely and according to who owns it, though it’s meant for public consumption to achieve the same objectives of helping the society fight emergencies among the community in need.
Referrals cost and other expenses for each ambulance.
Looking at these ambulances in their costs in such a way that the referrals are done one by one. That is;
Government ambulance.
With the government ambulance, we contacted the district acting health officer and she gave us the following concerning referrals;
The referral is always free of charge. This is because the workers are all paid by the government. No additional payment is done to either the driver or the nurse attending to the sick inside the vehicle.
In case of fuel scarcity, the person who wants the ambulance service might be asked to top up the fuel to wherever the sick is to be referred to.
Tekworo medical centre ambulance.
Tekworo medical centre has two ambulances that are used to aid their referral work, and they have costs that are attached to it; after contacting the focal person of the facility, that is; Okello Churchill.
The first condition under which the referral is made is voucher service. This is whereby a person working with an organization or the medical bill is paid by the company he/she works for.
These vouchers ONLY work for pregnant mothers and children under the age of 5 years old.
With these categories, all the services are rendered FREE to the needy as long as the referral destination is within the vicinity of the Pader district and not beyond Gulu or Lira.
The second category of people includes those without vouchers. These people are often charged some amount of money to facilitate the smooth running of the services. This payment for an ambulance is charged per kilometre a Ugandan shilling 2,000 after a certain distance it has covered already, that is 50km. Okello said these charges are usually paid to fuel the ambulance.
There are other costs like; payment for the service of the driver and the ambulance nurse who are accompanying the sick to the destination of the referrals. When we contacted the driver for Tekworo health centre, Ben. He said that the price is not fixed. It varies depending on how the negotiations are done between the two parties involved, and it’s not that much because it’s the money that they use for feeding when doing their work.
Hon. Christopher Komakech’s ambulance.
This ambulance has got all it takes for an emergency operation and works on the sick since it’s well equipped with other gadgets for operations.
Following a discussion with the ambulance focal person, that is; Mr Odeba Mark, he stated the following to be put into consideration;
The ambulance has the capabilities to operate on good roads other than going into bumpy roads because it's very low above the ground. Perhaps it will be used to pick patients from along the centres that harbour good roads for its safety.
Odeba said that this ambulance will be fueled by the person who wants the services of the ambulance at any time it's needed with the exception of payments to its staff like the driver and the nurse.
This ambulance will have its own staff who will work and will be paid monthly by Hon. Komakech Christopher.
Uganda Police ambulance.
Pader district has also been given a way forward to seek permission from the police force if the need arises to request for the police ambulance for referrals to any destination. Following a conversation with the Assistance Superintendent of Police (ASP), Samson Obicu, he said police ambulance was initially meant to facilitate the services of police staff and their close family members, but due to the scarcity of ambulances in the district, the police force has agreed to give their ambulance in case there is need of referral to be made. He noted the following in respect to the referrals;
There must be a formal request to the police force for the referrals to be made, to the district police commander, an officer in charge of criminal investigation and among others, through the driver and thereby he is allowed to take the patient to the desired destination.
Personal agreements will be made on how to pay the driver. Note; personal agreement, and not the police fraternity agreement because driver’s services will be required to perform the task ahead.
The above discusses all the costs that are involved in the referrals concerning each ambulance as stated above during the pandemic.
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