Butabika National mental referral hospital has opened a private wing to enable relatives be on the side of their patients as they recover.
The hospital director, Dr. David Basangwa, says the private ward was opened out of patients’ desire to have a private wing.
Patients are able to have a self contained room to themselves and can have relatives to support them as opposed to being in the general wards. Patients in the hospital’s general ward cannot have a relative with them.
The private wing can take up to 30 patients but at the moment there are four patients.
Asked why mental health patients would require a private wing as opposed to being in the general wards, Dr. Basangwa said some patients that go to Butabika such as those with depression are fully in their mental state of mind and aware of what’s going on.
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On whether they would have enough staff to attend to the private patients, Dr. Basangwa said it was the reason they had taken long to establish the private wards but at the moment the hospital has the staff.
He said patients in the private wing will have single occupancy rooms, promising that in future they would have double occupancy for those who need it.
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Patients in the private wing are free from disturbance from those in general ward.
Butabika hospital currently holds 750 patients as opposed to the 550 patient capacity for which it was built.
