Kawempe Hospital grappling with bed shortage

KAMPALA - Kawempe Regional Referral Hospital has underscored the need for additional bed space.  

This concern was raised by the hospital’s Director General, Dr. Emmanuel Byaruhanga Kayogoza, on Tuesday, July 8, during an engagement with the Public Accounts Committee (Central), which at the time was chaired by Mawogola South MP Gorett Namugga (NUP).

Also in attendance was the substantive committee chairperson, MP Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi (NUP). The interaction was anchored on the Auditor General’s report on the entity for the year ending 2024.

In a brief about the hospital, Dr. Kayogoza noted that although the Kawempe facility remains a 200-bed hospital, the number of patients it receives far exceeds its capacity.

“At any one time, on average, we have about 300 patients. That is babies and their mothers…. Because we have an average of about 150 mothers and 150 babies. Sometimes, more or less,” he cited.

“Our hospital has the busiest maternity unit in the world. We have an average of 60 deliveries per day. We handle about 80 mothers per day. Out of those, about sixty are deliveries, and others are other complications.

The cesarean section rate is almost half of the mothers we get, for obvious reasons. This being a national referral hospital, most of the mothers who come need interventions. We also have the largest neonatal unit with a bed capacity of about sixty. But as I said, we have an average of about 100 babies per day,” Kayogoza added.

Kawempe Regional Referral Hospital was established in 2018 as a national referral facility with a focus on obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, including neonatology (care for babies up to one month old), adolescent health, the elimination of mother-to-child HIV/AIDS transmission, as well as research and training.

He added that, as a ‘Muntu wa wansi’  hospital (open to all), the facility serves patients from across the entire country, which sometimes exerts pressure on the machines, leading to congestion.

Revenue situation

“Kawempe National Referral Hospital Non-Tax Revenue (NTR) target is sh40million per month. In total, we collect about Sh480million (annually),” said Kayogoza.

He reiterated that one of the hospital’s sources of Non-Tax Revenue (NTR) is radiological services, namely X-rays, ultrasounds, and CT scans, as well as Level Seven, which operates a six-bed private ward for financially able patients.

Prompting, Butambala County MP Muhamad Muwanga Kivumbi to ask whether the hospital would be in position to completely offer free services if it were allocated sh500m by Government.

Something, Kayogoza said, was possible because ninety-nine per percent of their services are free, including laboratory tests and deliveries.

“So, you need to match up with just Sh500m, and the facility is free for every mwananchi (citizen) to come and get medical care. Okay,” Kivumbi wondered. “CT scan on average is about Sh600,000. Ours is Sh150,000,” Kayogoza elaborated.

Fact file 

Kawempe National Referral Hospital, with a  200-bed capacity, is located in Kampala city.

The hospital was constructed in 2014 at about US$11.3 million under the Mulago Kampala City Council Project (MKCCAP) funded by African Development Bank project -AFDB.

Established to decongest Mulago National Referral Hospital, the facility was officially opened to the public in 2016.