Govt set to construct national children's referral hospital in Jinja

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The Government is to construct a National Children’s Referral Hospital in Jinja city, at the current Jinja regional referral hospital pediatric unit, which is the children’s wing of Jinja regional referral hospital.

A concept paper for the project has been finalised and will soon be forwarded to the ministry for approval, Dr David Mukisa Isabirye, the Jinja Regional Referral Hospital’s chairperson, Board of Directors, said.

“We shall soon share the concept with the Ministry of Health‘s Senior Top Management for immediate action and evaluation of the above project,” he said in an interview with New Vision on Saturday, January 24, 2026.

According to Dr Mukisa, the eight acres of land on which the children’s hospital sits was donated to Jinja regional referral hospital by the Madhvani family, hence the name Mukesh Madhivan Children’s Hospital, Jinja.

In support of the initiative, Dr Mukisa revealed that the Madhivan Group of Companies has already donated sh500 million towards the project.

The Intensive Care Unit at Jinja regional referral hospital. (Photo by Tonny Nsoona)

He, however, explained that the donation will not be in cash but building materials and renovation of the existing infrastructure, such as buildings, by Excel Construction Company Limited, a construction firm under the Madhivan Group of Companies.

The Jinja Regional Referral Hospital (JRRH) director, Dr Alfred Yayi, clarified that Jinja Referral Hospital consists of two campuses: Jinja main hospital and Jinja regional referral hospital pediatric unit (commonly known as Nalufenya Children’s Hospital).

According to Dr Yayi, the children’s hospital along Nalufenya road in the heart of Jinja city was constructed decades ago to serve approximately 80 children, but currently, over 200 children are admitted at the facility, causing congestion which results in patients sharing beds.

“Once the project is completed, it will bring some relief and improvement in the quality of care for our clients, because currently, the two hospitals (Jinja main and Nalufenya children’s ward) are operating at the cost of one regional hospital’s budget,” he said.

The hospital director expressed gratitude to the Uganda Association of Cardiologists, Dr Timothy Batuwa, the area member of parliament and other partners, who organised a health medical camp, where 25 heart patients were successfully operated upon last year at Jinja hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU) by Ugandan cardiologists.

“We give praise to the Almighty God, all the patients survived and are currently doing well. It would have cost each patient over sh200 million for such an operation in India, but was done free of charge here,” he said. 

Commenting on the shortage of drugs by patients at Jinja hospital, Dr Yayi said they had petitioned the line ministry through parliament as well as partners to do something about the challenges, since the facility requires an annual budget of sh4 billion to run adequately, as opposed to sh1.9 billion, which is provided.

He also noted that the hospital mortuary requires more fridges. He said it currently has only three fridges, which are able to accommodate nine bodies altogether.  

“These could be adequate if the Jinja city council had a city mortuary, but they lack one, meaning all unknown bodies, including people killed in accidents, are brought to the hospital mortuary,” he said.

Dr Yayi observed that despite renovation of the ICU by the Uganda People’s Defence (UPDF) engineering brigade, the facility lacks adequate staffing.

The 10-bed facility lacks critical nurses since each bed is manned by three of these specialised nurses, he said, adding that there are only six of the 30 nurses required by the hospital.

“The other challenge is the lack of Anesthesia Doctors,” Dr Yayi said, explaining that resources to recruit them are available and efforts are being made to recruit at least two since none applied for the position when an advert was placed in the newspaper.