Jinja village gets modern surgical facility

Residents of Kyabirwa-Bujagali Village, Budondo Sub-county in Jinja district have received a health facility to provide between 65 per cent and 75 per cent of the community’s surgical needs.

Kyabirwa Surgical Centre, privately founded two months ago by members of Mount Sinai Health System based in the United States, was constructed in a very rural community, but empowered with resources such as water, internet and solar power.

According to its management, "it is meant to improve a long-standing stereotype that much-needed surgery is expensive and only available for the rich.”

The administrator, Ms Anna Turumanya Kalumuna, said the facility is conveniently located near Soft Power health facility, making it easier for referrals to be made.

“After conducting a research, we discovered that out of 100 patients who visit Soft Power health facility, about 70 return home because they lack money to undergo surgery.

“Therefore, people who started the hospital wanted to help vulnerable members of the community; and it is for this reason that we are located in a rural setting and not in the town centre which everyone can access.

“We are heavily subsidizing our services to less than 50 per cent the average prices to enable the least privileged person access to surgery.

Costs

"At our facility, hernia repair is between Shs250,000 to Shs300,000 where elsewhere it ranges from Shs450,000 to about Shs1.5m; and for almost the same amount, we do breast abscess removals,” Ms Turumanya said.

Adding: “We are charging Shs300,000 for hemorrhoids which costs up to Shs1.9m elsewhere. Since we opened about two months ago, we have seen close to 300 patients, with majority of them coming from Soft Power health centre.”

On Friday last week, a team of health practitioners, doctors and nurses visited the facility where they will be referring patients for surgery.

Model

According to Ms Turumanya, the facility is out-patient based; meaning a patient undergoes surgery in the morning and is discharged in the evening.

“Though we have the capacity to admit patients, we want to do away with it to reduce on congestion. Instead, using our field follow-up system, we shall follow-up the patients' recovery process at home,” she added.

Ms Hajira Nabirye, 24, a patient whose umbilical cord was swollen and bleeding, said she underwent surgery on the morning of October 25 and was discharged that evening.

Ms Turumanya added that all the patients’ information is obtained and for those with smart phones, their GPS is captured to keep track of their progress.

“All procedures are on the internet through live feed. Here, doctors in New York log in and interact with the surgeons while live streaming procedures which might be deemed complex,” Ms Turumanya divulged.

Dr Arthur Emoru, one of the doctors at the facility, said some of the surgeries that will be conducted include general anesthesia and spinal anesthesia; while in future, they will introduce endoscopies, histological services, sub-specialist clinics and tele-surgeries.

Employment opportunities

Over 50 residents were hired and trained to construct the facility and the skills that were imparted in them have enabled many to become employable, with about 50 per cent of the facility’s current workforce coming from the community.

Ms Hanifa Mutesi, 23, says the facility is going to spur employment and growth in the area.

“Within a short period of time, the road network to the facility is going to improve, people will erect kiosks nearby to offer services to patients and their visitors and the entire village will become developed,” she said.

Mr Saul Kibirango, the maintenance manager, said the facility is fitted with 250 solar panels which supply the self-sustaining unit with about 33 Kilowatts of power.

“Our primary source of power source is solar while Umeme and the back-up generator are secondary power sources.

“If we were to run on Umeme, we would consume close to 200 units of power, but at the moment we spend between Shs180,000 and Shs200,000 per month,” he said.