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Kampala, Uganda | LOUIS JADWONG & AGENCIES | Refurbishment of Tororo Archdiocese’s main hospital — St Anthony in Tororo— has taken off in the past year, and efforts to raise its standard climaxes on Thursday when Speaker of Uganda’s parliament Anita Annet Among leads a grand fundraising at Hotel Africana.
The full refurbishment and upgrading of equipment and facilities at the hospital in eastern Uganda, will help it realize one of its objectives — to become Eastern Uganda’s first fully fledged university teaching hospital.
“Our long term goal is to see it developed into a teaching hospital for medicine presumably, affiliated to Uganda Martyrs’ University at Nkozi,” said the hospital’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Anthony Okoth Ndira.
He added that, ” Such a development would provide the much-needed specialized services for the people in the catchment area but we must be cognizant of the long list of upgrading steps involved in getting to this point. Non-the-less we have started the first step in this long journey.”
Dr Okoth is a renowned gynecologist, formerly at Mulago but picked by the St Anthony Tororo (SAHT) Board of Governors to help revive the hospital that has in the past three decades lost its previously high rating in the region.
The SAHT board is chaired by Fr Michael Korinding, with other members being Dr. Ojony Joa Jackeno (Vice Chairman), Godfrey Muhwezi, Fr. Zachary Oburu, Dr. Proscovia Arach, Rose Akello, Harriet Adrama, Peter Olwoch, MP Hon Ochai Max and Dr. Okoth Anthony Ndira (Secretary).
St Anthony Hospital is a 100-bed facility at the foot of Tororo Rock that was built in the early 60s by the Franciscan Sisters. It is a Private notfor-Profit (PnfP) institution belonging to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tororo under the Trusteeship of the Archbishop of Tororo.
The hospital, according to Dr Okoth, has a catchment population of 145,000.
“The major challenge we face currently is the significant shortage of revenue resulting from a low patient turn over. This itself as a result of lack of certain vital infrastructure, staff, equipment and facilities that should all function in synchrony to produce the required quality of output,” said Dr Okoth.
” We are close to completing the renovation of the outpatient department (oPd) as this is not only the eye of the hospital but also the main receptor for emergencies. When the outpatient department is completed, we shall need to purchase and install into it and into the other hospital departments, the necessary equipment, instruments and operating systems.”
He said with some of all this in place, they will start improving patient-turn over.
“With a certain critical turnover rate, we would more easily attract specialists and consequently intern doctors. All this would make the quality of our services more outstanding in the region and furthermore, because government would pay the salaries of the intern doctors St. Anthony’s hospital would have more doctors at little extra cost.”
In order to get some revenue, the hospital plans to have full mortuary and funeral services, to serve Eastern and Northern Uganda.
The fundraising this Thursday at Hotel African is organized by the Tororo Archdiocese Development Association of the Laity (TADAL) based in Kampala. TADAL is led by Dr Henry Nakelet Opolot.
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