Mengo Hospital has officially opened its expanded accident and emergency department in a bid to cater for rising trauma cases.
The facility was on Monday opened by the Bishop of Namirembe Diocese, Rt Rev Moses Banja who urged medics to always accord respect and give quality service to patients, irrespective of their social status.
“God has put you in this sensitive place to take good care of people’s lives. You must do it well. Treat patients well. Even if the person you are handling is of low status, treat them with dignity as God would love you to do,” Bishop Banja said.
The Namirembe Bishop hailed the administration of Mengo Hospital for serving the public diligently, noting that the new facility ought to further improve service delivery.
In 2024, Uganda recorded 25,107 road crashes, representing a 6.4% increase compared to the previous year.
Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area accounted for almost 40% of the trauma cases.
Speaking on Monday, the Mengo Hospital Executive Director, Dr.Simon Peter Nsingo said the expanded department will now have a 24/7 emergence care with dedicated ambulance services, state of the art trauma units for critical cases, consolidated outpatient department, specialist centre for multi-disciplinary cases, dedicated non-communicable disease clinic and children’s facility.
“This is something we needed in a country where patients are concerned about the time they spend in the hospital. Therefore, the purpose of opening up this space was to improve efficiencies and quality of care we give to patients,” Dr.Nsingo said.
He explained that the expanded accident and emergence department will see them attend to all patients who come when critically ill at ago.
“The facility ensures the patients access theatre immediately and doctors without any delay which is critical in ensuring their health. Previously, we were offering services but since trauma cases keep increasing due to accidents, we thought it was wise to expand this facility from about eight emergence and accident beds to between 16 and 20 emergence beds.”
The chairperson board of governors for Mengo Hospital, Jimmy Mugerwa said by expanding the facilities, they seek to provide quality services to members of the public.