REFERRAL CHALLENGES IN REFUGEE SETTLEMENTS PUTTING LIVES OF EXPECTANT MOTHERS AND PATIENTS BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH

By Godwin Abedican

Arua

The expectant mothers and others patients in refugee settlements in West Nile continue facing referral challenges as the available means can’t handle the large areas coupled to limited number of health workers available. As a response to this, organizations like ACORD have designed strategies of weekly outreach programs to take services closer to the patients and clients.

Peter Gift, the refugee welfare council III for Ofua in Rhino camp refugee settlement notes that with the low number of health centers, referrals have been a challenge to handle by the few heath workers. “As refugees, transport has been our main issue. There is always overwhelming of the facilities by patients when it comes to referral cases. It has been so challenging for the different settlements especially where we share the facilities with the host communities,” he said.

According to Aromo Jackline, an enrolled midwife under ACORD, attached to Olujobo health center 3, in Rhino camp refugee settlement, Madi Okollo district, with organizations now paying attention to the challenges, hopes are high that there will be significant improvements in referral systems “One of the greatest challenges is the mothers failing to reach the referral sites. In terms of transportation, there are incidences where we have ambulance challenges,” she said.

According to Aromo, sometimes they are left with no option but to painfully see lives getting lost in the process of trying to save the mothers. “Our struggles are always in trying to save lives of the mothers and that of unborn babies, but in some cases, one goes off. The ones that I have handled in critical conditions, two babies so far died within the ambulance in less than 3 months,” Aromo explained.

Narrating her experience from one of the hospitals, Gift Malunga, UNFPA country representative in Uganda, therefore appeals to medical workers to be shift in making referral decisions “I visited Jinja referral hospital and they were telling us how a 30 years old woman woke up bleeding and was rushed to the hospital on a boda-boda because there was no ambulance. By the time she got to the hospital she was so weak and with only one unit available to transfuse by the time more blood came the lady was already gone. The medical workers therefore need to be making quick referrals so that the mothers’ lives are saved,” Malunga appealed.

The referrals from the settlements are always made to Arua regional referral hospital a distance of around 70 kilometers by road with poor roads which takes a lot of time for the patients to reach.

Under the DELISIE project being implemented by ACORD in Terego and Madi Okollo districts as refugee hosts one has been procured to help in emergencies and referrals.

COVER PHOTO: Aromo Jackline, an enrolled midwife under ACORD speaks to the media on the refferal challanges in the settlement By Godwin Abedican