Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Mulago Specialized National Referral Hospital will on Monday start a week–long surgical camp in which they anticipate attending to over four thousand cases.
Speaking during a press conference, the hospital Executive Director Dr. Rosemary Byanyima said the camp which is an independence anniversary gift to Uganda will not attend to simple surgeries such as hernias but complicated procedures in the area of neurosurgery, ophthalmology, orthopedic surgeries, and surgeries to solve gastro-intestinal complications among others for both adults and children.
She says the aim of this camp is not only to create awareness about the strides made by the hospital towards venturing into specialized and super-specialized surgeries that have prior to been abroad but also to cut down on the backlog of patients who have been awaiting surgery.
According to Dr Michael Edgar Muhumuza who heads the Neurosurgery Division, this camp comes in handy especially since they will be working as a multidisciplinary team which will help quicken the procedures.
Muhumuza says they have made a lot of strides in advancing neurosurgery whereby the hospital can operate brain tumors using laparoscopy where they don’t make big cuts on the body but remove the tumors through the nose.
The doctor however expresses concern that his Nuerosurgery division is being burdened despite the technological advances made because of the increase in avoidable road traffic injuries exacerbated by Boda Boda riders. He notes that for every seven people currently in the Intensive Care Unit, six are victims of boda boda accidents which affect the head, and adds that the burden of extreme trauma from road traffic injuries has now increased three-fold, including children who sustain head injuries while walking school or moving on boda bodas.
Meanwhile, although the hospital already has some people booked in for surgery during the upcoming camp, Dr Norbert Orwotho, a Consultant Orthopedic Surgeon in the hospital says this is not all they will be doing and urged the public to come in for consultation and assessment in the sixteen clinical areas that they will be attending to.
They also encourage the general public to show up as they will be exhibiting the latest innovations in care and what new services people can get at the national referral facility.
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