Gulu regional referral hospital (GRRH) has been hit by a drug shortage, the hospital’s administration has said.
Dr Nathan Onyachi the hospital director said today at the hospital that for the last 8 months, the facility has been facing a drug shortage, something he attributed to the increased prices of drugs due the drop of the shilling against the dollar.
Dr Onyachi said the hospital has an annual budget of 950 million shillings to purchase drugs. The hospital’s budget, like other public institutions is in Uganda shillings, but the drugs are bought in dollars, according to Dr Onyaci.
Onyaci called for the increase of the hospital’s budget from the current 950 d0llars to 2 billion shilling.
To address the shortage in drugs, Onyachi says the hospital is sharing cost with patients by referring them to clinics to buy drugs as government only allocates money once a year for purchase of drugs.
‘‘You cannot leave someone to die because gov`t has not delivered drugs. We ask patients to buy. This is supposed to be free gov`t hospital but it turns out not to be free, we should share the cost,’’ Onyachi said.
Onyaci also says the drugs ordered for by the hospital is not delivered on time leading to relapses in the case of mental health patients.
Immaculate Akello, a senior nursing officer at mental health unit in Gulu hospital they get 10 mental health patients in the hospital per week due to relapses caused by an absence of drugs.
Gulu regional referral hospital receives about 600 to 700 patients per week.
