Sh600m gynaecology and fistula ward restores hope to Lango women

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The health ministry has officially commissioned the use of a recently refurbished and expanded gynaecology and fistula Ward at Lira Regional Referral Hospital (LRRH). The move restores hope for dignity and maternal care among the women in Lango region.

Assessment reports by UNFPA, the health ministry and LRRH indicate that the Lango is grappling with the highest backlog of unrepaired Fistula and pelvic floor conditions among the women in the community, which has forced many into broken marriages.

According to Obstetrics and Gynaecology head Dr James Okello, initially, the hospital had a small gynaecology ward with 10-bed capacity, yet many cases were received daily.

Hospital board chairperson Dr Fred Nyankori explained that because of the inadequate space in the ward facilities, the post-natal mother was sleeping in the corridors, and they had to provide a tent for them, while some mothers, who had undergone surgery, were sleeping on the floor.

Nyakori stressed the need for the expansion of the maternity ward that has an obstetric theatre. He thanked the Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) for supporting the hospital with the urocare facility.

Over the weekend, health minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng commissioned and handed over the 45-bed capacity ward to the management of Lira Hospital.

Health Minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng commissioning the newly expanded Sh600m Gynaecology and Fistula Ward at Lira Hospital on Saturday.

The fully-equipped, magnificent facility, funded by MUST under the MUSA project, has offices, a conference room and treatment spaces.

Working environment improvement

Receiving the facility, acting hospital director Dr Andrew Odur said the facility will go a long way in improving the working environment for the health workers and healing environment for the patients.

Odur revealed that, yearly, the hospital registers an average of 8400 deliveries, and about 2,100 mothers are delivered through caesarean section, and that 15% of those suffer complex gynaecological complications, and that the facility will facilitate them to handle the condition that has since remained a very big health challenge in the region.

He said through collaboration with MUST, the hospital will continue to train health professionals and transfer skills in female pelvic floor reconstruction surgery through the fellowship program.

Fight teenage pregnancies

Dr Geoffrey Mugisha, the co-ordinator of Fistula Care, implored the community to fight teenage pregnancies and support the mothers to deliver in the health facilities to reduce fistula and other Urgyen challenges.

He said the country is suffocating with a lot of problems with handling the Urgyen challenges because of the increasing rate.

Prof. Musa Kayondo, who represented MUST chancellor, said several mothers from upcountry would go to Mulago National Referral and end up not receiving treatment, and that the establishment of a Gynaecology and Fistula Ward in Lira was to respond to a call by Aceng for decentralisation of the specialised services.

He said MUST, through the Fistula Gynaecology programme, through its treatment component, organised fistula surgery camps, where a total of 555 mothers were treated and that the same services were also extended to neighbouring South Sudan.

Through the training component, he said the program started the first accredited urogynecology fellowship training program in all of central and eastern Africa centre currently based at the University in Mbarara city.

“We want to train at least one urogynaecologist in every regional referral hospital such that we have the urogynecologist at every hospital among the 16 in the country and we hope to have at least 25 of them in this country in the next five years to take care of the women,” he explained.

He said they are not only preventing obstructed labour but also training doctors who are doing Caesarean sections so that the mothers do not get complications in the hospitals. He said building the ward is part of the MUSA project aimed at ensuring the patients recover with dignity.

While commissioning the facility, Aceng said the Ward will address the high number of Fistula cases in Lango.

Aceng advised the community to avoid early pregnancies among the young girls, which remains the biggest cause of Fistula.

She assured the region that the Government plans to establish a five-storey maternal and child health complex at LRRH to address the congestion challenges and improve the care for mothers and the newborns.