Patients on admission at Chukudum hospital reportedly share the same beds with dead people, an official in Budi County has disclosed.
The administrator says there are not enough beds in the hospital, and the existing ones are dilapidated.
He mentioned that Chukudum hospital has also been sending some patients in need of admission back home due to a lack of enough beds in the facility.
Chukudum hospital is a government-owned facility in Eastern Equatoria state. It often treats complicated medical cases from greater Kapoeta and Budi Counties.
Augustine Lokang, the administrator of the hospital said the situation is precarious especially when a patient bleeds or dies on the bed. He said the blood stain remains on the bed as the hospital has no separate cooling beds for dead bodies in the mortuary.
“Most of our mattresses are worn out and torn. To replace them is a problem. When somebody passes away on that mattress, then the bed remains like that without a mattress. While in mortuary, you clean the dead body and return the bed to make sure that you admit somebody else,” he explained.
A patient who spoke to Singaita FM from Chukudum hospital said sometimes they are forced to share beds.
“God help us…and anyone out there should come and help us. There are a lot of wounded people who share beds; no blankets and bedsheets.”
Lokang is concerned that some of the admitted patients are catching new diseases by sleeping on contaminated beds.
“This is a critical situation were we are in – from one person to another. Others bleed a lot on the torn mattresses. The blood and the urine absorb into the mattresses.”
He urged the state government to support the hospital with enough beds and medical equipment.