Intensive care seekers overwhelm Hoima Hospital

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HOIMA

Hoima Regional Referral Hospital in Hoima city is experiencing an increase in the number of people seeking intensive care services, New Vision Online has learnt.

Statistics at the hospital indicate that at least 30 patients in need of intensive care are admitted weekly at the facility, yet it does not possess the specialised infrastructure to handle them.

Acting hospital director, Dr Ibrahim Bwaga, says accident victims with head injuries, women with obstructed labour, those with intestinal obstruction, bowel perforation and premature or preterm babies are some of the cases the hospital registers seeking intensive care.

According to him, the hospital admits 25 to 30 patients with the above complications weekly in need of intensive care and at the end of the month, the hospital admits over 100 patients seeking similar services.

Bwaga expressed concern that despite the increasing numbers, the hospital lacked some specialised infrastructure and equipment meant to handle patients in need of ICU services.

He noted that these challenges force the medical personnel to transfer patients to Kampala city-based Kiruddu Hospital and Mulago National Referral Hospital, which sometimes risks the lives of the patients.

He made the remarks on January 3, 2025, as health ministry officials met journalists during a tour of the sh8.4b structure that the Government has constructed at the hospital to house the ICU department.

The Government, through the health ministry, with funding from the World Bank under the Uganda COVID-19 Response and Emergency Preparedness Project (UCREPP), contracted Excel Construction Ltd to construct three three-storeyed building structures.

Media practitioners from different media houses tour inside the building that will house the ICU. (Credit: Peter Abaanabasazi)

Commenting about the project

Bwaga expressed excitement about the construction of the building saying once the building gets equipped with specialised equipment, it will be a big relief for the medical workers and patients.

He noted that it is always expensive for the patients who get referred to Kampala Hospitals and that if ICU at the hospital starts operations, it will bring the service nearer and save lives, and money and reduce the risks faced by patients and attendants.  

Bwaga also commended the Government for the construction and installation of the oxygen manufacturing plant at the facility

He noted that the oxygen plant currently produces over 100 oxygen cylinders daily, ensuring that the hospital never runs short of oxygen, as it did during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The new oxygen manufacturing facility fills 10 cylinders per hour and in a day, it fills 100 cylinders compared to the previous one where we would only rely on eight cylinders a day,” he said.

Doreen Nshabohurira, the communications officer for UCREPP, said that civil works have been completed and it is now awaiting installation of equipment and then commissioning.

She noted that the project was initiated with the aim of extending the ICU service near the people of Bunyoro who have been seeking such service in Kampala.

"We are waiting for the equipment to be shipped into the country and within two months, the machines will have been installed,” she said.

Excel Construction Ltd project manager, Abdul Karim, said the three-storey building is going to house a theatre, ICU department with eight beds and two isolation beds, a high dependence unit (HDU) with eight beds and two isolation beds and eight beds for dialysis patients.

According to him, the 15-month construction project has been completed.