Dr.Tugumisirize in a meeting with stakeholders at Masak hospital on Thursday

PATIENTS in Masaka hospital are staring death in the face following the National Medical Store’s (NMS) failure to deliver lifesaving drugs for 2 weeks now sighting the recent closure of roads by government as a cause for the delays.

The roads were closed during the visits of South Korean and Turkish presidents to Uganda earlier this week.

According to Dr. Florence Tugumisirize, the director Masaka hospital, trucks from the National Medical Stores that were enroute to Masaka to deliver drugs turned back after they found the road blocked.

Tugumisirize said the NMS trucks don’t use off roads to deliver drugs across the country.

She revealed that the hospital receives over 2000 patients at the facility daily, adding that a delay has frustrated many doctors.

“We look on helplessly as patients groan in pain. There is nothing we can do for them as we usually send them back home,” she said.

There has been a recent public outcry from people who said the closures have greatly affected their businesses.

“We are looking for school fees for our children who are reporting back to school next week and you cut off all avenues for our survival,?” asked Bernard Mutebi a trader in Natete. Why didn’t they have a plan so that we wouldn’t get disrupted with this kind of arrangement? I have lost business opportunities where I was supposed to earn some good money from my produce business. My customers turned back because they couldn’t access my shop. They later called and said they had secured another buy,’’ he narrated.

On Entebbe road many people some who were headed to Entebbe airport to catch up with their flights, ended up missing them.

Reports also indicated that airlines were delayed for hours awaiting passengers to board.

However, some members of the public have also called for a forensic audit at NMS saying they often deliver expired drugs. This they say puts lives of millions of Ugandans at risk.

Government however said the closures were justified as it was a measure to minimise security threats.