Lwala Hospital Kaberamaido

Lwala Hospital Kaberamaido is a hospital in Lwala Village, in Kaberamaido District, in the Eastern Region of Uganda. It is a private, community hospital, serving the district of Kaberamaido and surrounding communities.^[1]

Location

The hospital is located in Otuboi sub-county, in Kaberamaido District, off of the Soroti–Dokolo–Lira Road, approximately 56 kilometres (35 mi), northwest of Soroti Regional Referral Hospital, in the city of Soroti.^[2] Lwala Hospital is located about 72 kilometres (45 mi), by road, southeast of Lira Regional Referral Hospital, in the city of Lira.^[3]

Overview

Lwala Hospital is a private, non-profit, community hospital owned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Soroti and is accredited by the Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau. The original planned capacity was 100 in-patient beds.^[1]

Among the challenges that Lwala Hospital faces are the following: 1. Dilapidated infrastructure, insufficient and overworked personnel, insufficient medical supplies, demoralized staff and low remunerations, among other challenges.^[4] 2. The hospital lies in the Teso sub-region, which together with the neighboring Lango sub-region are endemic areas for Human African Trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness, a vector-borne parasitic infection that is transmitted between humans, domestic and some wild animals.^[5]

Hospital operations

The hospital started as a sub-hospital health unit in 1936. In 1992, it received regulatory approval to operate as a hospital. As of December 2019, the hospital attended to 6,000 outpatients annually, on average. At that time, it admitted 3,553 inpatients, annually on average, with a bed occupancy ratio of 56.3 percent. There were 573 maternal deliveries every year on average, with a caesarian section ratio of 16.7 percent. At that time, patient user fees accounted for approximately 38.3 percent of total annual hospital income.^[1]