Aside from the many infrastructural challenges facing the La General Hospital, patients and healthcare professionals now have to contend with flooding.
Even as the rainy season draws to an end, management of the hospital which gets, flooded after downpours is raising concerns about the safety of its staff and patients.
The hospital’s antenatal care unit is usually the worst hit by the floods.
A video of the floods sighted by Citi News showed that expectant mothers were forced to stand on chairs as rainwater gushed through the corridors of the unit.
Staff like Susan Djanie, a revenue officer complains that work grinds to a halt whenever it rains heavily.
“When it rains, the place is very bad, the place gets flooded and the last time the pregnant women were on chairs the place got flooded so we couldn’t work. It entered the consulting room so we couldn’t work,” she lamented.
Expectant mothers who were at the hospital on that day, also said the unexpected flooding was traumatizing.
“When you go inside during the floods, there is no space, you have to put your baby on your chest and stand because some of the babies are too heavy to carry at your back. We are appealing to the government to come to our aid and help us since this is the place we come to seek medical care,” an expectant mother said.
The situation has put the minds of staff on the edge for years now.
That is why more of the workers have questioned the stability of the building which houses the ANC unit itself.
Built over five decades ago, workers say the cracks on the walls and ceiling keep them worrying about their safety while at work.