Lira Regional Referral Hospital finally has its own dialysis services in house. The milestone was announced by the Ministry of Health.
Formerly, patients from the Lango Sub region had to travel over 400km to Kampala to access this service.
Lira Regional Referral Hospital, commonly known as Lira Hospital, is a hospital in Lira in the North Region of Uganda. It is the referral hospital for the districts of Amolatar, Apac, Dokolo, Lira, Kole and Oyam.
This hospital is the referral to more than five districts in this region. Recently, Non Communicable diseases like Chronic kidney complications, high blood pressure and related complications have emerged as one of the leading causes of death in Uganda.
According to Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, the minister for Health, one in every ten individuals has high blood pressure and this is highly attributed to the change in lifestyle of many individuals.
She adds that over 20 new patients in need of dialysis services had to travel from Lango Sub region on a monthly basis to seek for the service.
In a quest to decentralise health services, Lira Regional Referral Hospital received four dialysis machines to help in easing treatment to the people of Lango Sub region.
According to medical experts, dialysis machines are required to filter blood of patients to remove excess water and waste products when the kidneys are either dysfunctional, damaged or missing.
Lira becomes the fourth region in Uganda to start services of dialysis to patients with the ministry pledging to train more nephrologists to give specialised services.
Available data shows that kidney disease in Uganda is increasing and is among the top ten causes of death, with a case fatality rate of 21% among patients admitted with chronic kidney disease.
Government has only four dedicated dialysis centres, meaning all other cases of chronic kidney disease in the country can only be handled at the country’s national referral hospital at Mulago in Kampala, Kiruddu Hospital and its affiliates.