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Uganda’s first public women’s hospital will soon open its doors.
Kampala, Uganda | FLAVIA NASSAKA| Sitting on 24,000 square meters of land on Mulago hill North of Kampala city, the 10 storey Mulago Maternal and Neonatal Healthcare Unit epitomises everything modern in a 21st century health service. The facility being finished using a $34.1m loan from the Islamic Development Bank will exclusively offer specialised women reproductive health services and new born care.
The contractors are putting final touches; painting and fixing infrastructure since the deal is to hand over the facility when everything – from hospital beds to machines and lighting- are in place and ready to use. That should be in November – December.
It will deal with high risk antenatal cases, post natal services, modern operation procedures such as hysteroscopy and urogynaecology that involves pelvis reconstruction and In Vitro fertilization (IVF) – a process of fertilization by extracting eggs and a sperm sample, and then manually combining them in a laboratory before transferring them to the woman’s womb.
On the first floor just next to the back entrance is a room that looks much like a mini factory, with numerous long gas cylinders and other equipment. David Nuwamanya, the Principal Hospital Administrator, proudly announces that this a manufacturing plant for medical gas. There will be no more expensive imports or gas shortages.
“Gas will be made here” he says, “We are running a completely new design. Our wards will no longer be congested with oxygen cylinders. Everything will be done here and connect to the wards.”
Nuwamanya said design was conceived to ensure that although “no one likes to be in hospital but when they need to it should be a good experience”.
This focus on patient’s welfare shines through every ward of the new building set to accommodate 320 beds. Each general ward will accommodate eight beds. On each bed, Plastic rails are already fixed on the walls with points marked white, yellow and black for oxygen, vacuum and medical air.
There are state of the art gold and silver rooms already glittering with terrazzo flooring. The most magnificent is 8th floor where the presidential suite is housed. Accessorised with a terrace at the top which gives one a view of the entire Kampala city, the patient here will have a bedroom, a spacious washroom, sitting area and TV area. There are six such rooms and 45 executive ones.
The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is on fourth floor with 15 beds for adults and neonatal ICU has 47 beds for new born children.
This design according to Works supervisor; Joadah Consult’s Chief Executive Officer, Joel Aita was zeroed on after benchmarking visits by government officials to hospitals offering similar services in South Africa and UK.
