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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Uganda Heart Institute ( UHI) has handed back Uganda Cancer Institute premises that it has occupied for the last four years.
UHI has been occupying the forth floor of UCI since 2016 after the health body was forced to move when renovations on Mulago National Referral Hospital begun.
The heart institute which has been using the space to house it’s inpatients has moved to the fifth floor of Mulago National Referral Hospital.
The hand over comes two years after UCI asked UHI to move since it needed space to admit the ever increasing number of patients that they receive.
Dr. John Omagino, the executive director of UHI handed back the keys to the floor that they have been occupying to his counterpart from UCI, Dr. Jackson Orem at the cancer institute today.
While receiving the keys, Dr. Orem said that the two facilities need to continue working together as they serve Ugandans. “We receive this facility but the spirit of brotherhood between these two Institutions should remain in place. These two entities were created by the Act of Parliament. The only strength we have is in working together,” says Dr. Orem.
The space handed back today has been admitting 17 beds and four ICU beds. 60 patients receive care weekly from the institute.
According to the heart institute, they will occupy their current home until government is in the position to build them a permanent home. The permanent home is expected to be constructed on Owen Road located on Mulago hill at a cost of 259 billion shillings.
Currently, over 100 cancer patients are admitted at the facility. According to UCI, the now available space will enable them create some sort of social distancing between patients, something that has been hard to do with the space they have been using.
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