By URN
Health officials, local leaders, and residents in Kiryandongo District are renewing calls for the government to upgrade Kiryandongo Hospital into a Highway Regional Referral Hospital, citing overwhelming patient numbers, limited staffing, and inadequate funding.
Constructed in the 1970s and rehabilitated in 2016, Kiryandongo Hospital serves a catchment area of about 500,000 people and receives close to 12,000 patients every quarter. The facility also attends to refugees living within the district.
However, both district leaders and hospital administrators say the facility remains underfunded and ill-equipped to meet the rising demand for healthcare services. Dr Godfrey Kisembo, the Medical Superintendent, says the overwhelming number of patients continues to strain the hospital’s limited resources, including drugs and medical supplies.
The hospital receives 800 million shillings annually for essential supplies, an amount Kisembo says is far below the 1.1 billion shillings needed each year to adequately provide quality services. He adds that most of the hospital beds are old and insufficient, while critical equipment requires urgent replacement.
Dr Kisembo notes that the hospital is also grappling with acute staff shortages, operating with only 169 workers out of the recommended 343, representing a staffing level of just 33 per cent.
He says the absence of a substantive surgeon remains a serious challenge, especially for emergency and trauma cases, arguing that the hospital’s elevation would attract more specialists and improve patient outcomes.
The hospital management and district leaders are now appealing to the Ministry of Health to elevate the facility to a regional hospital to enhance funding, infrastructure, and staffing.
Dr Kisembo explains that regional hospital status would come with specialized services such as medicine, surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, and ophthalmology, allowing the facility to offer more comprehensive care.
Edith Aliguma, the LCV Chairperson of Kiryandongo District, says her office has repeatedly petitioned the government and even written to President Yoweri Museveni seeking intervention, but their appeals have not yielded results.
The call for elevation gained renewed urgency last week after a major road accident near Asili Farm in Kataleba Village, a few kilometres from Kiryandongo town, left 46 people dead and 67 others injured.
The hospital struggled to manage the influx of victims and had to refer all patients with serious injuries to facilities in Gulu and Kampala due to limited capacity and a lack of specialists.
Linos Ngompek, the Kibanda North Member of Parliament, said the tragedy tested the facility’s preparedness and reaffirmed the need for its elevation.
The Ministry of Health is yet to comment on the proposal to elevate Kiryandongo Hospital.
