The Minister for Health, Jane Ruth Aceng Friday joined a team from Emergency NGO to mark one year since operational activities commenced at the Children’s Surgical Hospital in Entebbe.
Over 1,000 children aged 0 to 18 years receive free specialized surgical services at the facility which houses an administration block, auxiliary services, a guesthouse for patients from afar, reception, medical training rooms, and an outdoor play area for children.
The Hospital has so far handled 7,592 Out Patients, 965 admissions, 1,005 surgeries of which 50% are major procedures.
According to the health ministry, the hospital comprises 367 people of whom 329 are Ugandans while 38 are international. The healthcare staff including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, radiologists, physiotherapists, laboratory technicians, biomedical engineers is made up of 176 specialists, 146 of whom are Ugandan.
The 72 bed facility hospital also has three operating theatres, six intensive care beds, 16 for sub-intensive care beds – an observation and stabilisation ward, six clinics, a radiology department, a laboratory with a blood bank, CT scanner, and a pharmacy.
According to Dr. Aceng who also officially opened the ‘Building Medicine of Excellence in Africa Conference that gathers representatives from 12 African nations, the hospital will offer specialised services to children.
Aceng said the facility will also serve as a capacity building center for healthcare training within the region. She revealed that some Uganda health workers are on placement at the Salam Center in Sudan while Sudanese staff are in the Ugandan centre.
“We continue to promote such opportunities. Today is an important day as we begin to receive patients from countries in the region. This hospital serves as a center of excellence and will offer specialised services to children,” Aceng said.
“Our sincere appreciation to finance ministry for the funding,donor agencies for contribution in terms of pro bono architectural services design and finances, engineers and teams who constructed this facility.Thank you.This is a landmark in our step to delivering quality services,” she added.
Meanwhile, Rossella Miccio the president of the Emergency NGO commended all stakeholders for the good collaboration in ensuring proper services are extended to the children.
“I’m thrilled that the fruitful discussions today and collaborative atmosphere were able to lead to such a tangible and exciting outcome. Thank you to all the delegates. Everyone at EMERGENCY is looking forward to building the next steps for ANME together,” Miccio said.