St Mary’s Hospital Lacor, a Catholic founded health facility in Gulu with a well-known reputation in the health sector has said it is struggling to provide quality health care services due to financial challenges.
Lacor says it needs over 20 billion annually to pay 617 staff, procure medical supplies, pay utility bills and manage waste products, among others.
Dr Cyprian Opira, the Executive Director of the hospital said on Saturday that the hospital is facing challenges in providing quality health care amid rising costs.
Dr Opira was speaking during an annual workshop held at the hospital to discuss the hospital’s sustainability strategy with stakeholders.
Lacor hospital was established in 1959 by Combonian missionaries, Piero Corti, an Italian pediatrician and his Canadian wife, a surgeon.
The hospital is a household name in northern Uganda and Uganda for provision of health services. The facility remained operation during difficult times when war raged in northern Uganda, providing both health services and refugee for locals fearing abductions and killings by rebels in its facilities.
The Corti Foundation was set up to help the hospital source for funding. Annually, donors including the Foundation donate around 12. 3 billion shillings translating into 67 percent of the over 18 billion the hospital need to run its activities every year. Other sources of revenues include; user fees, 3.7 billion and local revenues 550.2 million shillings. Of the over 18 billion needed annually, 7.4 billion goes towards paying salaries of the 600 staff including medical doctors and support staff.
But over the last nine years, government’s funding to the hospital with a capacity of over 500 beds has dropped from 1.5 billion shillings in 2008 to 720 Million shillings in 2015 forcing it to rely mainly on Corti Foundation, its biggest donor.
Hospital to reduce admissions
On Saturday, Jennifer Kane, a communications consultant hired by the Corti Foundation announced during the meeting that in the next five years, Lacor will limit the numbers of patients it admits as part of a new strategy. In 2016 alone, Lacor Hospital admitted 34,600 patients in the general ward, medicine ward, TB ward and isolation ward, costing the hospital a huge percentage of its budget.
Kane listed six strategies that the hospital plans to achieve in the next five years( from the year 2017- 2022). These includes: efficiency, research and improvement on quality and access to quality health care services.
Dominic Corti Atim, the President of Corti Foundation, says there is need to change how the facility is run amid demand of quality. Atim said the hospital has adopted a new strategy in order to improve on its health services. Additionally Atim said a lot of resources will be invested in IT facilities in the management of patients.
1 Comment
Annual event for fund raising from the locals is one source.