‘It is heartbreaking and horrible’ … Amupanda exposes shocking state of Katutura hospital

FORMER Windhoek mayor Job Amupanda has expressed his frustration after visiting the dilapidated Katutura Intermediate Hospital and witnessing mice scampering around a ward.

Videos shot by Amupanda on Monday evening at the hospital have since gone viral on social media.

“It is heartbreaking and horrible, we are a country on its knees with no direction. The country is on autopilot,” Amupanda said.

In the video, Amupanda expressed his disappointment after he was informed by a patient that there are more mice than what he saw.

“It is really bad that this is our general state hospital,” he said.

He added that the country's leadership are fatigued and only thinking about who will inherit their wealth.

“It's a horrible state of affairs. We once had a country. We are now left with a shadow of a country, a travesty of justice and a betrayal of the promise of liberation!”

The viral videos also depict the unhygienic conditions of the bathrooms and broken cupboards.

According to the superintendent of the Katutura Intermediate Hospital, Dr Nelago Amagulu, the hospital was built in 1973, and renovating the entire building at once is impossible.

“You can't renovate the entire building at the same time because you need to still keep a functional space for the admission of patients,” she said.

Amagulu added that one section should be renovated at a time, allowing patients room to move to other sections.

She said there is a plan, and assessments are being done for ward renovations.

“The Khomas region will still require another hospital when closing down Katutura hospital for major renovations,” Amagulu said.

She was speaking at the Katutura Intermediate Hospital yesterday afternoon, following the videos going viral on social media. Also present at the hospital was health minister Kalumbi Shangula, who conducted an inspection.

President Hage Geingob, Shangula and other officials visited the Katutura Intermediate Hospital in 2020, after photos depicting the unhygienic conditions were circulated online.

During that visit, Geingob said renovations, which were still underway and budgeted for, would lead to improvements in terms of the quality of health services provided at the facility.

At the time, Geingob also questioned the media for being selective in their judgement of the conditions of the hospital.

Shangula said they have a budget to renovate the most critical areas in the hospital in phases.

“I will not say we have problems at Katutura Hospital, yes indeed, there are some challenges because no place is ideal, especially this facility, which has been in operation since the 1970s,” he said.

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