H.E. Mrs Angeline Ndayishimiye, Burundi’s first lady paid a visit to the Entebbe Paediatric Hospital which is also known as Children’s Surgical Hospital in Entebbe, Uganda.
The visit coincided with 37 children from Burundi who were brought to Uganda and are currently undergoing various surgical operations at the regional facility.
Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, Uganda’s minister for Health lauded the Emergency medical team and all partners that have been supporting the hospital.
She said, the facility had some challenges during the time of COVID-19 “but now it is fully operational and therefore welcomes the Burundi’s patients.”
Giacomo Menaldo, the Country Director of Emergency and Children’s Surgical Hospital said the visit of Burundi’s First Lady gives prestige and visibility to the regional health facility.
“We are also proud that the minister of health was able to attend because this is a partnership between our civil society organization and the government of Uganda through the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance, and Ministry of Education among others,” he remarked.
Menaldo also noted that according to the agreement with the Ministry of Health, 85% care and services is given to Ugandan patients and 15% to other patients in the region because the hospital was designed for Ugandan patients but they also want to make services available for other people coming from abroad to show that Uganda is kindly responsible and everything is free of charge for patients coming from all over.
“The hospital has 72 beds capacity, 6 of which are for paediatric intensive care unity, 16 for high dependency unit and 50 for wards. Therefore, with this capacity, we can work on 1600 to 1800 operations per year and accessing from 6000 to 8000 children- which means that we receive 20 – 30 patients per a day,” he added.
The Children’s Surgical Hospital in Entebbe which was opened in April 2021 is a referral for paediatric elective surgery and treats hundreds of children a year, from across Uganda and the African continent.
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