UK medical team offers free treatment at Mulago

By Violet Nabatanzi

About 520 patients with disabilities at the National Referral Hospital, Mulago’s orthopedic ward have received free treatment from a UK medical team.

The team from University of Nottingham which arrived in the Country last week also donated orthopedic equipment to the patients.

The team is led by Dr. Trudy Owens from School of Economics University of Nottingham.

Trudy said in an interview that patients undergoing treatment had improved and were able to do more tasks.

“This year we collected about 44 containers full of equipment for people with disabilities because when people in the UK learnt that the equipment was more useful they collected more,” Trudy said.

She said some of the equipment will help children with disabilities at Katalemwa Cheshire home.

Among the equipment they donated include orthopedic shoes, Spinal Braces, Wheelchairs, crutches Arm brace, Knee, ankle foot orthoses and prosthetic limbs.

Others are Hip Braces, Insoles and Orthotic tools.

The coordinator Uganda Polio project, Dennis Nsimenta, said same team treated over 1000 patients last year.

He added that the population of patients who need orthopaedic appliances is on the increase due to road accidents and other diseases. Despite the high number of clients, less than 1% can manage to have access to quality orthopaedic appliances like lower limbs, artificial arms, calipers, foot orthoseses, corsets and cervical collar among others.