Dr. Rosemary Byanyima the Acting Director of Mulago National Referral hospital has revealed that the hospital has planned a nationwide activity to show case their surgical services.
This activity dubbed the “Surgical Week” will take place from October 2-6, at the hospital premises with a main aim of giving back to the community in commemoration of the 61st Independence anniversary of Uganda.
“In that period we shall have health education, screening for surgical operations, and our specialists shall examine you and later work on those that need surgical services at a free cost,” Byanyima explained.
Specialists in this Surgical Week will offer over 10 specialized services including Nuero surgery, Orthopedic surgery, Paediatric, Gastrointestinal, Urology, Endocrine, Anaesthesia amongst others at zero cost.
Dr. Byanyima revealed this while addressing Journalists at Mulago National specialized hospital Kampala on Thursday.
Being the largest and oldest referral hospital in the country, Dr. Byanyima noted that this is a chance for them to cut down on the backlog of patients plus showcasing state of the art and super specialized services in terms of surgery to the public because some Ugandans fly abroad for services they can get within the country.
“The directorate of surgical services is the biggest here in Mulago, we want to showcase all these services to the public, over 80 surgeons will be available to offer these services to the general community,” she asserted.
Dr. Orwotho Norbert the head of the Directorate of Surgical services at Mulago Hospital emphasized that one of the other aims of this program is to also create awareness to the general public that several surgical services do actually happen at Mulago.
“The activities will for the 5 days start at 8am to 4pm, come all and see what we have in stock, there will be no cost involved except in some special areas were special requirements will be needed” he asserted.
Dr. Phyllis Kisa a paediatric surgeon and urologist at Mulago hospital confirmed that their team will also be available to offer sensitization, examination, screening and to also showcase their works including managing complex cancers and results that come out of the work they do.
In his remarks, Dr. Alexandra Bainjirana a senior consultant and Orthopedic surgeon noted that since they mainly deal with trauma and road crushes are on arise in the country lately, they have mobilized all orthopedic surgeons from all over the country to be part of this camp such that they greatly involve in this give back to the public.
Dr. Kasadhakawo Moses the head of Ophthalmology department at Mulago hospital noted that since a large population out there lives with blindness unknowingly, their emphasis in this week will be to raise awareness about the concept of universal access to eye health so that people can appreciate the need to seek for eye care services.
According to the latest studies carried out within the country, 0.5% of the population is blind with the main causes being retinal conditions, cancers, cataract, glaucoma amongst others.
Dr. Moses also stressed out that since the eye car medications are always not included in the essential drug list, they hope to use this opportunity talk to policy makers such that they include these supplies on the drug list.