Support for hospital clinical activities

Dr. Ambrosoli Memorial Hospital has a capacity of 287 beds, divided into departments: maternity and gynaecology, paediatrics and malnutrition, general medicine, surgery and tuberculosis. It is equipped with an outpatient clinic for external patients, an analysis and radiology laboratory and three operating theatres. The hospital also houses a pre and post-natal clinic, a paediatric vaccination and growth monitoring clinic, the HIV / AIDS clinic and clinics dedicated to specific diseases: mental disorders, epilepsy, tuberculosis.

In recent years Uganda has regained a certain degree of stability, yet the country still ranks 162th out of 189 in the Human Development Index. According to statistics released by the World Health Organization, life expectancy is less than 58 years and about 48% of the population is under 15 years of age: diseases that are easily treatable in the developed world have a very high cost in terms of human lives in Uganda. The infant mortality rate is around 43 children in 1000 births, while mortality under the age of five is even higher (64/1000 births); moreover, maternal mortality is 368 mothers out of 100,000 children born alive.

(Dati: UNDP e Uganda Bureau of Statistics, Uganda National Household Survey, 2018)

Dr. Ambrosoli Memorial Hospital operates in one of the poorest and most remote areas of Northern Uganda. The hospital is collecting the heavy legacy of a civil war between the national government and the Lord Resistance Army (LRA), which devastated the region from 1986 to 2007, destroying the social fabric and the human capital of the whole community. The war has caused more than 100,000 deaths. 30,000 children were abducted during the conflict and turned into child soldiers, while displaced people, about 1,600,000, lived for years under unbearable conditions in refugee camps.

The war has worsened the situation of women in Northern Uganda, so much so that the Gender Disparity Index is still higher today in the country than those for education, health and quality of life.

The Dr. Ambrosoli Memorial Hospital is the only reference hospital for the Agago district and neighbouring districts, with a catchment area of half a million people. Each year, the hospital provides qualified health care to more than 50,000 patients and oversees the 33 government dispensaries in the district. Kalongo is a hospital at the country’s edge that serves an isolated and poor rural area and it is the only health outpost in an area where there is no real healthcare alternative, due to the lack of appropriate infrastructure and developed urban areas.

Every day the hospital offers qualified care in medicine, general surgery, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology to hundreds of people; in addition to ordinary activities, it frequently faces emergencies or unforeseen epidemics such as malaria, which still remains one of the main causes of hospitalisation and death in this region.

Ensuring the availability of trained health personnel, essential medicines, medical devices and equipment that meet modern quality standards has always been our priority: : our first mandatory commitment to Kalongo hospital!