Plan to elevate Kayunga Hospital fails over funds

Kayunga. Hopes by leaders in Kayunga District to have their hospital elevated to a regional referral hospital status, have been shattered after the government said it has no plan to do so due to lack of resources, Daily Monitor, has established.
Kayunga Hospital, which also serves patients from the districts of Kamuli, Nakasongola and parts of Mukono and Buikwe, is currently undergoing major renovations and expansion.

The leaders, among them Ntenjeru North MP Amos Lugoloobi, Kayunga Woman MP Idah Nantaba and the district chairperson, Mr Tom Sserwanga, had written to the Ministry of Health asking it to elevate the 40-year-old general hospital to a regional referral hospital as a way of improving health services to the community it serves.
The leaders had in their request in 2016 noted that with the increased population, the hospital, now with a 100-beds capacity, could no longer handle the big number of patients.

No chance
However, Ms Sarah Opendi, the State Minister for Health (General Duties), on Monday said they cannot grant Kayunga Hospital a regional referral status when they are still struggling to recruit doctors and also equip the existing referral hospitals.
“You cannot wake up and turn a hospital into a referral. They can request, yes, but our target is to first fully equip the existing general and referral hospitals,” Ms Opendi said during an interview.
She added that renovation of Kayunga and Yumbe general hospitals was because of their poor state and has nothing to do with elevating them to referral hospitals.

Jinja Regional Referral Hospital, which is about 48 kilometres away from Kayunga Town, is the nearest referral hospital and many patients from Kayunga Hospital are referred there.
“We had asked government to elevate this hospital to a regional referral status because of the advantages that come along with such status, for instance more medical personnel, increased funds and medical supplies,” Mr Lugoloobi said yesterday.
“We shall, however, not give up on the request to grant it a referral status,” he added.

Rehabilitation of Kayunga Hospital began early last year and is being undertaken by Arab Contractors (U) Ltd at a tune of Shs70b.
The two-year project that involves, among other things; renovation of all staff houses and construction of new ones, x-ray, modern theatre, laboratories, an emergency block, medical laboratory and an outpatient department, is expected to end in 2020, according to Mr Elderly Haytham, the project manager.
Mr Haytham said that they had so far done about 50 per cent of the work.
Kayunga District chairperson, Mr Tom Sserwanga, said construction works were on course and commended the contractor for the good work so far done.

Mr Sserwanga said the hospital now serves thousands of people from neighbouring districts, which he said necessitates it to be elevated to referral status to be able to cater for the number of patients.
A number of the health facilities in the countryside, which were constructed before and after independence, are currently in an appalling state.

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