Expectant mothers at Kawempe Referral Hospital fear for their lives as a result of the blood shortage at the hospital.

Under normal circumstance, the hospital bank must have 40 units of blood daily for emergencies but instead, a tour of their blood store revealed the hospital had only four units in their storage fridge.

According to Nakazibwe Aggie, an expectant mother found at the hospital said she is worried about delivering from the hospital.

“This is my second pregnancy and I am expecting to give birth this late October. But with this scarcity of blood in hospitals, I pray blood is around on that day I give birth because I nearly lost my first baby a few years ago as the hospital had no blood,” says Nakazibwe.

Rita Nabossa, is another mother who shares her experience giving birth in a hospital with blood shortage.

“During the operation, I nearly lost my life because there wasn’t enough blood at the hospital. Having over bled, blood that was stocked for me was not be enough and on rushing for another unit, there wasn’t any matching my blood type. I was only lucky that I survived,” Nabossa added.

Nabossa however urged the public to attend to this national problem in order to reduce the death cases in Uganda.

Joseph Kiiza, the manager of the blood bank at Kawempe Referral Hospital earlier told the Observer that the hospital is in a crisis as the ambulance brings in patients every minute.

“When there is no blood, there is nothing doctors can do for the patients, one can die in a minute if blood is unavailable yet it could take a minute to save her life,” Kiiza explained.

The hospital administrator, John Baptist Ebaat says blood scarcity has been one of the major problems faced at the hospital in September but hopes for a reduction of the shortages this October. He confirms that patients in need of blood in September surpassed the blood units available at the hospital. These came from regional hospitals across the country and were mainly pregnant mothers.

“People ought to know that many will still die because of failure for people to donate blood. Because we cannot manufacture blood, it is everyone’s responsibility to donate blood if you can,” Ebaat appealed to the public.

Blood stockouts are a cause of death in various hospitals around the country as the same cases were earlier reported in Fort Portal regional hospital, Lugazi hospital, among others.