Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital has received Shs5 billion from the government to recruit additional health workers in the 2026/2027 financial year, a move expected to ease the facility’s chronic staffing shortages and improve healthcare delivery.
Dr Archbald Bahiizi Newton Sebahire, the hospital’s Senior Executive Consultant, said the funding comes at a time when the facility has only 298 health workers against an approved establishment of 1,035. The current workforce represents less than one-third of the required staffing level. He said the shortage has placed immense pressure on health workers, with some departments operating with only two staff members instead of the recommended 12.
According to Dr Bahiizi, the planned recruitment will increase staffing levels to about 40 percent. He added that the government has committed to progressively increasing the wage bill to enable the hospital to reach about 60 percent staffing by the end of next year. Despite welcoming the additional funding, Dr Bahiizi said inadequate infrastructure remains a major challenge.
He explained that the hospital has outgrown its existing facilities following the expansion of specialised medical services.”We now have specialists in cardiology, orthopaedics and psychiatry, but the available infrastructure is no longer adequate. We need to renovate the current buildings and also construct new ones to accommodate these services,” he said.Dr Bahiizi said the hospital is implementing several projects to improve healthcare services.
These include expanding the Accident and Emergency Unit from two to 20 beds, installing a CT scanner with on-site interpretation services, expanding the Intensive Care Unit from two to four beds, extending oxygen piping to hospital wards, establishing a kidney treatment unit and renovating the children’s ward and private wing.
Dr Martin Ouna, a specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology at the hospital, said increasing the number of health workers will help sustain recent improvements in maternal and newborn healthcare. He said the hospital has recorded reduced congestion in maternity wards, fewer referrals from lower health facilities and a decline in maternal and neonatal deaths.
However, Dr Ouna declined to disclose the figures, saying the Ministry of Health will publish the official statistics in its annual performance report. He attributed the improvements to stronger supervision, continuous mentorship of health workers and increased capacity to manage complicated cases at lower-level health facilities.
Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital serves the districts of Kabarole, Kamwenge, Kyegegwa, Kitagwenda, Kyenjojo, Kasese, Ntoroko, Bundibugyo and Bunyangabu, as well as Fort Portal City. The facility also receives patients from neighbouring areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo. URN