The government is constructing a state of the art laboratory at Lira Regional Referral Hospital worth Shs3.9 billion.
The facility, which will be equipped with machines worth Shs700 million, will act as a research and testing centre for any emerging diseases.
The project is implemented by the Ministry of Health under Uganda Covid-19 Response and Emergency Preparedness Project (UCREPP) financed by the World Bank.
The contract has been awarded to Techno Three Uganda Limited. Minister of Health, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, who is also the woman Member of Parliament for Lira City, said Lira Regional Referral Hospital needs a huge chunk of land for new developments since it will be upgraded to a National Referral Hospital.
During the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the state of the laboratory at the old Akii-Bua Stadium on Saturday, the minister denied claims that she was behind a land dispute between the community and the Lira Hospital administration.
“People who falsely accuse me of grabbing their land to extend the boundary of Lira Regional Referral Hospital (LRRH) should know that I am not a land grabber, but instead they are the ones who have encroached on the hospital land,” she said.
Dr Aceng said the hospital was started in 1928 when she was not even born and its boundaries and the land title were made in the early 1960s during Milton Obote’s government.
There is a pending eviction of over 200 families accused of encroaching on the hospital land after they lost a court case in March last year.
“I heard some people who have encroached on the hospital land accusing me of having an interest in the land but that is not true,” the minister said. “These land grabbers took the hospital to court, and they were defeated. They went to the Court of Appeal and the hospital won the case. So, they must leave the hospital.”
She encouraged the hospital staff to protest against the community who have encroached on their land in case they try to resist the pending eviction.
Ms Anifa Kawoya, the Health state minister in charge of General Duties, said Lira Hospital is very privileged to have such a state of the art laboratory.
According to Ms Kawoya, this would be the fourth of such laboratories to be constructed in the country after the ones constructed at Mbale, Arua, and Mbarara regional referral hospitals.
“And for the CT scan, Lira is the only government hospital that has it in entire northern Uganda,” Ms Kawoya said.
Dr Nathan Onyachi, the Lira Hospital director, said there is already an epidemic in the region because so many people are dying at the hospital due to liver cancer due to excessive consumption of alcohol.
“We are losing so many people due to intestinal bleeding and liver cancer which is becoming an epidemic,” he said.
Dr Fred Nyangkori, Lira Hospital’s chairman board of governors, said the hospital is so contested whereby expectant mothers who are admitted there sleep in corridors.
“The maternity ward has only 56 beds and 22 suites but the majority of mothers sleep in the corridors. So, I request you to handle the issue of maternity which is our biggest problem,” he said.
He said because of the lack of space, the government should plan for skyscrapers since there is a plan to upgrade Lira Hospital to a national referral hospital.
Dr Nyangkori also cited an inadequate supply of medicines at the hospital.
“The supply of medicine does not meet the demand of our people. The number of people needing services is too high,” Dr Nyangkori said.
Dr Charles Olaro, the director of Clinical Services at the Ministry of Health, said medical laboratories are very important and Lira one would be a centre for research and testing of any emerging diseases.
