By Ritah Kemigisa
Following the second wave of Covid-19 that recently hit the country, more than 50 nurses have succumbed to the deadly virus.
This is according to Annet Birungi, the treasurer of the Uganda Nurses and Midwives Union.
“These nurses have died in a very bad shape because they were not having enough care. When a nurse dies, you find us struggling, collecting money on WhatsApp, there is no transport to a place designated for us,” says Ms Birungi.
Speaking during Morning at NTV Show, Birungi says it is saddening that most of the deceased have died due to lack of appropriate medical attention and yet their families could afford to take care of them.
Birungi says nurses are at great risk of contracting the virus but nothing much has been done to protect them.
She is meanwhile asking the government to compensate the families of the deceased and also give risk allowances to all nurses irrespective of which department they are deployed to.
“We want to fill forms of those who have died so that they can be compensated, there is no shortcut to this, the government has to compensate their families,” added Ms Birungi.
Annet Birungi revealed the situation is worse in some hospitals where nurses are sharing masks with patients.
According to Birungi, they have been compelled to buy masks daily to supplement those supplied by the government.
She also revealed that some of the nurses are now forced to use disposable masks for more than a week.
Uganda has so far lost 1,966 people to covid19 as of results announced yesterday.
84,116 have contracted covid-19 while over 56,000 have recovered.
