By Moses Kizito Buule
Work for rehabilitation and expansion of Kayunga district hospital has raised hope for better and more specialized treatment through decongestion of existing health centres, deployment of more specialists meeting the upgraded standards, and offering more employment opportunities for locals.
This hope was on Monday expressed by Kayunga LC V chairman Tom Serwanga in an interview with our reporter who found him in his office shortly after touring progress of the work.
Serwanga said that the hospital has had no surgeon in the past, and expressed optimism that the Ministry of Health will deploy one on completion of the shs72 billion work, in addition to other specialists that the hospital has been lacking.
The chairman expressed satisfaction with the working relations between his leadership, the communities and M/S Arab Contractors, the contractors undertaking the work, and attributed this to the expeditious handling of the project slated to be completed in two years.
Taking Watchdog Uganda around the complex, the Project Manager Eng. Haytham Ahmed Ali Elderby said they are striving as much as possible to give the hospital the robust appearance of Mulago main referral hospital which he disclosed, was also refurbished by his firm.
He attributed success so far registered to co-operation between his company and all players in the project including relevant government ministries and bodies, Kayunga district leadership and the communities who have offered the local input of labour.
Haytham added that thanks to the foregoing, and weather conditions not betraying them, work will be completed in 24 months as stipulated in the memorandum of understanding between M/S Arab Contractors and the government of Uganda.
“We have consumed three of the 24 months and telling from the achievements scored, we shall complete the work in the stipulated period, and we are striving to defy the sometimes mean weather conditions to ensure we achieve this goal”, he said.
The Assistant Project Manager Mahmoud Fawzy who accompanied his boss in taking us around the work, , thanked especially the LC V Chairman and his council for making personal efforts to boost morale of the contractors and local staff.
The work at the hospital has three main phases including construction of the new wing, plus major and minor rehabilitation of existing infrastructure.
In the first phase, the main building to be constructed is to house three operational theatres, the out-patients department, laboratories, the X-ray unit, a pharmacy and a blood bank, patients’ wards, new staff houses, power houses and a walkway to join the new wing to the old one.
Major rehabilitation works are to include wards, a kitchen and laundry block, new additions to the existing x-ray, OPD and administration blocks, while minor minor rehabilitation includes refurbishment of the 25 blocks of servants quarters and doctors’ residences.
New additions are to include access roads in the complex, guard houses, gates, sewage and lighting systems.
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