The four-storey building is being prepared for its grand transformation as outlined in President John Magufuli’s directive for the premises to be vacated immediately to give way to mothers whom he found sleeping on the wet floor of the old maternity wing owing to a shortage of beds and space.
In an unusual take on them now-popular slogan ‘Hapa Kazi Tu’, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Heath, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Dr Mpoki Ulisubisya, yesterday joined in the ongoing exercise to clear the air-conditioned facility and make it ready for maternity use.Several senior ministry officials were also at the hospital early hours yesterday to lend a hand in the work which included the setting up of new hospital beds in the antenatal section of the maternity block.
The minister herself, Ummy Mwalimu, was also expected to join in the exercise later in the day.
Speaking to reporters, Dr Ulisubisya said although it would
take time for the building to be fully operational as a maternity ward, emergency measures were being taken to at least get all the current new and would-be mothers off the floor.
The PS confirmed that the old maternity wing was congested with no space left to put up more beds. “There are only 120 beds, yet up to 180 maternity patients are admitted,” he said.
Hospital officials said most of the women patients found sleeping on the floor were those waiting to breastfeed their newborns. Only mothers who had undergone surgical operations (C-section) were assured of beds in the old wing, according to hospital officials.
The new maternity wing will include some modifications like the construction of additional toilets, bathrooms and washing places for new mothers.
“That is what a maternity ward requires. The building was meant to be an administration block… we will then need to put up some partitions or remove others to accommodate the new beds,” Ulisubisya said.
All the administrative workers formerly occupying the building have been transferred to the ministry pending further arrangements.
At a meeting with Dar es Salaam city elders on Saturday, the president gave a two-day ultimatum for the hospital’s administration block to be vacated and turned into an additional maternity ward to ease congestion inside the current maternity ward.
Dr Magufuli saw the situation for himself during an impromptu visit to the ward last week. “The floor was wet with foul water,” he told the city elders in his address which was aired nationwide.
He said it was not acceptable for mothers to be sleeping on the floor while the country had all the resources required to give them decent hospitalisation.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
No comments :
Post a Comment