Health workers at Masaka Regional Referral Hospital have expressed their concern over the inadequacy of incubators to accommodate premature babies due to an increase in premature births in the region.

Dr. Herbert Kalema, a senior gynecologist at Masaka Regional Referral Hospital, said that the number of preterm babies has now doubled that of the previous years.

According to the hospital staff, who revealed this on condition of anonymity, the hospital room where the babies are taken care of is too small to accommodate all of the babies at once.

“The hospital has four kangaroos, three warmers, the isolation room has only three beds, and the auto therapy room can only accommodate one baby,” the staff said.

The staff attributed the inadequate incubators to the fact that Greater Masaka has very many districts and that cases from all neighboring districts are handled at Masaka Regional Referral Hospital.

In January 2021, Grace Bingi, the officer-in-charge of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), reported about the same issue.

She said that, on average, 60 premature babies are born and admitted to the NICU of the regional health facility monthly.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 13.4 million babies were born preterm in 2020 (before 37 completed weeks of gestation).