Patients at Masaka Hospital refuse to return home because of free meals
Authorities at Masaka Regional Referral Hospital are alarmed by the growing number of discharged patients who have declined to return to their homes as hunger ravages the region.
Most of these have returned to the hospital to access free meals that are prepared for admitted patients.
The Masaka hospital principal administrator, Eleazer Mugisha has told KFM that in the past two months several patients have been missing meals as they reach on the serving table and find nothing yet meals are cooked depending on the hospital patient register.
Mugisha says that they are worried as hospital authorities over the increasing number of such ‘stray people’ since the meals cooked are specifically for patients admitted.
He adds that the hospital spends Shs 15million on meals monthly and they do not have any supplementary funds to cater for other people except admitted patients.
Masaka is one of several districts in Uganda currently grappling with an acute food shortage as a result of a prolonged drought that started last year.
In November 2016, the government warned that 1.3 million Ugandans are facing the threat of severe hunger.
In response president Yoweri Museveni announced in December last year that funds for road construction would be diverted to provide food relief for millions of starving Ugandans.
