New refurbished Mulago hospital eases services

The paver blocks at the entrance of newly refurbished Mulago hospital, offers a glimpse of what to expect at this 106-year old hospital.
The national referral hospital now has many different entry and exist points for ambulances and ordinary vehicles. The pedestrian walkways have been beautified with brown pavers and all pathways manned with security check points.
The main entrance is protected by boom barriers to stop errant drivers from ramming into the hospital.

The hospital compound is strikingly greener, offering a good therapeutic environment. The main hospital has also been fenced off from the Medical School with a small entry left for accessing and exiting both facilities. The patient drop off points have also been gazzetted and protected with barriers to protect patients from moving cars.
Mr David Nuwamanya the hospital principal administrator and project manager, said accessing services at hospital will not be free of charge as it is in other government health facilities. Treatment will be based on your ability to pay for services categorised in: silver, gold and platinum.

Every patient that checks in to the hospital will have their beds and room numbers traced using their National Identification Number (NIN). Already, the hospital has been digitalised with biometric devices to capture such details.
“We have set up an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) system where we ask for your National Identification Number (NIN) and they trace where they are,” Mr Nuwamanya says.

There is a new block housing operating theatres with supporting areas for staff and training areas already equipped with furniture. These will also be used for telemedicine services where both students and doctors can consult their colleagues abroad. The training areas are also linked with live feeds from theatres so the students don’t have to walk down the operation rooms. The theatre rooms and operating tables have soft vinyl floors, making them easier to disinfect.
The theatres too have already been fitted with pendants and digital screens to control the environment in form of temperature.
The lamina floor in theatres allows the air to move out in one direction to avoid air contamination.

The walls are non-static to avoid infections together with elbow taps since the specialists in theatre come out with blood in their hands. There are 22 theatres designed by UK’s Brandon and these are backed up with Brandon Medical company Limited, the manufacturer and designer of world-leading technology for operating theatres.
With many Ugandans now seeking dialysis, the new hospital has 32 points equipped with internet points, oxygen and vacuum with a nurse on call.

However, Mr Nuwamanya says unlike the dialysis unit in Kiruddu General Hospital the services here at Mulago will be limited to only those waiting for kidney transplant
The floor housing dialysis unit also has a water treatment plant which is used to remove minerals from ordinary water before it is used on kidney patients.
All toilets in the hospital are colour-coded with pink indicating ladies and blue for gentlemen. The bulbs in the different theatres are also made with colour conditions to see the different body organs while the environment inside ( temperature, colour) is controlled by a touch screen.

For the case of organ transplant, there are two theatres; one which will be for the donor and the other for the recipient.
The Intensive Care Unit ( ICU) is equipped with 47 beds with 20 of them for children. To ensure a high level of sterlility, the ICU is equipped with modern feeding pumps which time when to feed the patient and how many meals to give.

Summary by levels
Level 6: Gold rooms
Level 5: Children
Level 4: Internal medicine and adults
Level 3: Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
Level 2: Out patients
Ground level: Platinum clinics and mortuary

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