Lacor Hospital has 26 doctors and specialists and is performing very well

Apr 08, 2009

EDITOR—The management of Lacor Hospital has read in your issue of April 6, an article entitled, “Doctors speak out”. In the article, it was reported that Dr. Martin Okot is the hospital’s medical superintendent and that the hospital has two docto

EDITOR—The management of Lacor Hospital has read in your issue of April 6, an article entitled, “Doctors speak out”. In the article, it was reported that Dr. Martin Okot is the hospital’s medical superintendent and that the hospital has two doctors, and so the lower staff man the clinical activities.

That the hospital is further constrained by poor infrastructure. The bed occupancy rate is about 120%, so many patients sleep on the floor. That we have only one theatre with one operating table and that we have no functional x-ray machines.

It was further reported that the International Committee of the Red Cross refurbished our plumbing and electrical wiring systems. That we operate on generators which we can only sustain for two hours.

That Lacor has two ambulances and only one is functional, that sometimes the patients’ families have to fuel the ambulance so as to be able to access emergency services.
As per our annual activity report of November 2008, we would like to state the following:
lThat the hospital has three directors; the executive director, medical director and institutional director.

lWe do not have a medical superintendent as reported in your article but a medical director called Dr. Odong E. Ayella.

The hospital has 26 doctors and specialists, 28 clinical officers and 14 interns. Others include visiting medical personnel and students from abroad.

The infrastructure in place is very good and comprises good staff houses, good and well-maintained operating theatres and wards, good and conducive dormitories for the nursing and laboratory students, as well as classes, a well- established technical department, 24-hour ambulance service, to name but a few. The hospital also has a bed-capacity of 476. However, bed occupancy is still high at 130%.

We have an operating theatre with six operating rooms with six operating tables. In fact, there were 5,195 major surgical operations done last financial year. It is not true that we do not have functional x-ray machines.

We have a big x-ray department with two units—x-ray and ultrasound. In fact we do not have enough staff to man the machines.

We have five ultra-sound machines. However, we managed to examine 38,374 patients last financial year.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has never refurbished our plumbing and electrical wiring systems.

We have power from Umeme and our own solar system and batteries for back-up. We have two functional ambulances.

Last year alone, a total of 203 emergency ambulance calls were responded to, mainly obstetric emergency from our peripheral health centre III of Opit, Amuru and Pabbo.

We also use other vehicles in case all the ambulances are busy running errands. These ambulances are maintained and entirely fuelled by the hospital.

We therefore refute your report because the statements therein were false and detrimental to the image of Lacor Hospital.

Secondly, your reporter did not interview any of the directors of the hospital and as such, acted unprofessionally in publishing the information without verifying it.

Lastly, Lacor Hospital is a private, not-for-profit hospital whose overall objective is to improve the health and welfare of the population of northern Uganda by being a driver of quality healthcare provision and socio-economic development in the region, as the mission is to provide healthcare to the needy, and fight diseases and poverty.

A total of 309,675 patients were treated in the last financial year, out of which 46.05% were children below five years.
Management
Lacor Hospital

Editor’s Note: The situation alluded to in the article, is descriptive of the general situation in northern uganda and not specifically to Lacor Hospital. We regret the misrepresentation

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