CoRSU Hospital Kisubi set to start special surgeries

By Gladys Kalibbala

It is good news for patients who have been flying abroad for special surgeries like hip surgery and knee implants. Now such medical procedures will be handled at the newly opened private ward at CoRSU hospital in Kisubi on the way to Entebbe. 

Aloysius Kaganda Bakidde, the president, CoRSU Executive Board explains that since these services will be paid for, the income generated from the private wing will be used in assisting with the surgeries on children with disabilities.

He says CoRSU which started operations in 2009 is the only hospital in Uganda currently offering significantly subsidized services to children with physical disability.

“We intend to see that people with disability in Uganda are able to access rehabilitation services that improve their quality of life and that they are fully integrated in society,” he explains.

Bakidde urged government to come out and address around physical disabilities where he believes 80% of physically disabilities in Uganda that occur in children can be prevented, reduced or cured through timely interventions.

“It hurts to see that many children with minor disability that can be cured are left to die or suffer long-term disabilities because their parents are poor,” he noted.

Dr. Paul Muwa of CoRSU explains that many people who required the hip and knee surgeries were going overseas because the country has very few skilled specialists who can successfully carry out joint replacements.

“Non-availability of the implants is also an issue but we will have to import them from outside the country whenever there is need,” he explained.

Dr Muwa says they already have in place equipment for such surgical procedures.

Who needs this surgery?

Dr Muwa says such a surgery will be required by a patient who faces a hip or knee complications that is not curable due to diseases or trauma that can cause deformity.

“The alternatives of complications that are not curable in the knees or hips are treated by replacing them,” he says.

What many children have received at CoRSU

A walk around the wards will lead you to excited children, who have received orthopaedic operations, angular deformities of the lower limbs, injection induced lesions, clubfoots, bone and joint infections (osteomyelitis), tuberculosis infections of the bones, plastic/reconstructive operations of the cleft lip and palate surgery and many others.