Woes at Kamuzu Central Hosp: Patients sleep in a ward full of sewage
Patients at Kamuzu Central Hospital risk contracting more diseases than being healed as the broken basement sewer pipe has resulted in the dirt flooding into rooms in Male Orthopedic and surgical ward 1B which has seen some patients sleeping on beds above the sewage.
A visit to the central region main referral hospital on Thursday found some patients who are able to at least walk, congested on the corridors while some still stuck in the wards.
“The rooms are in a very bad state as it is very difficult for even our relations to come in with food because we don’t have any protection. Those who have remained there they are eating at their own risk because they have no any other option.
“Again, it is a risk to our live just to be in a room of such state, all the bad smell and when we want to move, we are walking on the mess which is not quiet okay,” said one patient who opted for anonymity and sat on the corridor besides his hospital mattress and a few belongings.
A nurse who spoke on a condition of anonymity said it is difficult for plumbers to work on the problem because the hospital has run out of disinfectants.
“There have been efforts by the hospital to look for decontaminators at the Central Medical Stores but to no avail because the stock which is there has been quarantined so that the Pharmacy, Medicine and Poisonous Board should first look at them as they seem to be expired.
“So until there are disinfectants, then the plumbers can come in because it is risky to them to work under the current situation,” said the source.
In an interview, KCH director Dr Noorden Alide confirmed of the problem and said the hospital administration is working on it.
“I am out of Lilongwe but I have heard of that problem and the hospital is trying its best to fix it. Currently, we are trying to rehabilitate a lot of the things at the hospital, especially in the main adult wards. We could have finished the work sometime back but due to some problems we are not yet.
“So yes, we have been having such problems and most of the times, we have been putting some temporally measures,” he said.
