BMC Clinics will be celebrating 20 years of Touching people’s lives on 17th March 2018 with a thanks giving Ceremony Presided over by President Y.K Museveni and launching a fundraising drive to construct BMC Hospital Kabwohe structure that will host the Accident Emergency department, Women and Children department amongst others.
Why BMC Hospital?
- Uganda has a maternal mortality rate of 336/100,000 live births (2016) and neonatal mortality rate of 43/1000 live births (2016). In Bushenyi, Mitooma, Rubirizi, Buhweju and Sheema Districts, there is only one Government District Hospital i.e. Kitagata Hospital that can provide maternity services to a population of over 900,000 including provision of emergency Obstetric care like caesarean section. This same hospital has few Doctors (and no specialists) who are not only overwhelmed by the large number of mothers needing emergency care but are also grossly underpaid thereby making it difficult to offer quality services as they have to get part-time jobs in private clinics.
- The District hospital in addition is located far from the main road and hence not easily accessible to mothers and children in urgent need of care. On the contrary facilities like BMC which are located on the main road currently are not able to provide emergency Obstetric Care and care for other emergencies including accidents to those in need due to lack of a theatre, equipment and related consumables.
- The mission hospitals of Ishaka and Comboni are also located near each other and actually in the same location as Kampala International Hospital leaving many people leaving in far away Buhweju, Sheema and parts of Kashari and Rwampara looking for services at BMC Kabwohe.
- There is poor uptake of pre-paid health insurance since the concept of health insurance is new and poorly understood yet heavily subsidized premiums would enable a greater number of mothers and children to access treatment in times of emergencies. This is worsened by the fact that most clinics providing pre-paid health insurance are not using electronic means of controlling access to medical services to avoid misuse by clients thereby making schemes unsustainable as breaking-even if very difficult.
The Hospital targets to;
- Increase bed capacity of In-patient department to over 100 beds
- Have in place standard admission facilities
- Standardized theatre services
- Specialized services like, Surgeons, Physicians, gynecologists, paediatricians and dietitians.
- Have special clinics like orthopedics, ophthalmologists, ENTs, Psychiatry
- Expand on laboratory services
- Ambulance services
- Have a robust community program
- And expand on all the mentioned current activities at the center.
COST FOR EXPANSION
- The expansion will cost over 6.5 billion shillings with the first phase costing 2.5 billion shillings and expected to be completed by end of 2018.