BY SEYIFUNMI LUMEKO
The minister of health, Dr Jane Ruth Acheng has received 160 medical oxygen cylinders with their accessories from Absa bank in a handover ceremony that took place at Ministry of Health headquarters.
We believe this will go a long way to help in meeting the demand for medicals oxygen
According to the Managing Director Absa bank, the donated cylinders will be distributed in 4 Regional Referral Hospitals (RRH), that is, Soroti RRH, Gulu RRH, Lira RRH and Jinja RRHwhere each hospital will receive 40 medical oxygen cylinders.
Comments
Dr. Jane Ruth Acheng, Minister of Health
“Allow me to appreciate absa for coming yet again to support the response to Covid-19, this is not the first time they are coming here. During the first wave of the pandemic, they were here tosupport with items like PPEs and test kits that could be used by health workers. And now yet again they are here to support with one of the greatest needs of this time and that is oxygen. So allow meon behalf of the National Task Force to say a big thank you to you for this very generous contribution of oxygen cylinders with their accessories.” The minister said “The facilities that you have chosen to donate to are treatment facilities that manage some of the severe and critically ill patients of Covid-19 and indeed they require a lot of oxygen. And many of you have heard of the challenges that we faced during this time, just before we started having a decline; when the oxygen requirements rose more than 6 times what used to be used before in the country. While numbers are now going down the severe and critically ill continue to be admitted and therefore the need for oxygen will definitely continue.” The minister added.
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Mr. Mumba Kalifungwa, Managing Director absa Uganda
“We believe this will go a long way to help in meeting the demand for medicals oxygen. It is therefore crucial that, as the private sector, we work hand in hand with the government to ensure that we strengthen our national health response to the pandemic. This pandemic has after all stressed the importance of the common African concept of Ubuntu. We must all unite and corroborate to mount the strong fight to this pandemic.” Kalifungwa said
Mr. Bildard Baguma, Executive Director JMS
This donation therefore from absa could not have come at a more opportune time to be able to help towards addressing this time. we appreciate and JMS the choice of absa to trust us with the responsibility to provide these oxygen cylinders and oxygen refills. We will also continue to provide necessary use training, provide necessary maintenance for this equipment at no additional cost to the hospitals going to receive them except where it will require the purchase of spare parts