Govt to elevate Wakiso Health Centre IV to general hospital 

The Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary, Dr Diana Atwine, has revealed that preparations are underway to turn Wakiso Health Centre IV into a general hospital.

During her visit to the health centre on Friday, Dr Atwine said: “The facility will be upgraded to become the district general hospital to replace Entebbe Grade B Hospital which was upgraded to become a regional referral hospital. This will bring referral services closer, and relieve Kawempe, Kiruddu hospitals and others of some pressure.”

She added: “It is not our first time as a ministry to think about that idea but we have been working on it and very soon I promise to send the Health ministry engineers on the ground to make a master plan for the upgrade of the health centre. I also promise that upgrading of the facility will begin in the next Financial Year 2022/2023 for proper preparations.”

Dr Atwine was visiting different schools and health centres to monitor house to house polio vaccination exercise which started on January 14.

The district health officer, Dr Mathias Lugoloobi, said the move by the ministry is good because many patients, who have been getting referrals even for minor issues, will now be handled from Wakiso District General Hospital.

However, the Wakiso District chairperson, Mr Matia Lwanga Bwanika, said he had been engaging the ministry to upgrade the Wakiso Health Centre IV for more than five years.

“The district has been running without a general hospital because Entebbe Grade A and B was elevated to a regional referral hospital,” Mr Bwanika said.

He added: “We hope they are not playing their games and if it is true let us wait for the project to kick off but I cannot take their words before the project starts.”

 In the last health meeting between Wakiso District and Ministry of Health officials , Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, the Minister of Health in April last year, said they have been studying the statistics of the population growth and found that the district has a population of nearly 2.5m people.

 “So according to the Ministry of Health policy, once the population of a district or a region reaches two million people, it means that there is a need for a referral hospital within the district or that region,” Dr Aceng said.

She added: “We have been discussing the need to combine Entebbe Grade A and B and elevate it from a district hospital to a referral hospital and have a district general hospital in  another place and we chose Wakiso Health Centre IV to become the district general hospital .”