Polish aid

Under the project, the hospital receives equipment enabling the provision of basic medical care at Wanda Matugga Health Centre, including dentistry, surgery, obstetrics and emergency care services.

The hospital was named after a Polish physician and missionary Wanda Błeńska, who for over 40 years had been treating leprosy patients in the Buluba hospital, located on the shores of Lake Victoria in Uganda. In October 2020, in appreciation of her missionary work, the Vatican opened a beatification cause of Dr Błeńska.

Even though a year has passed from the official opening ceremony of the hospital, thanks to the project of the InnovAid Foundation and the Polish Aid funds the hospital continues to receive necessary equipment, also to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

So far, an ultrasound scanner and an X-ray machine were donated. The hospital obtained authorisation to provide services using medical equipment it received, and as a result, patients with injuries no longer have to travel to the Uganda’s capital to seek treatment. So far, on average two to three X-ray scans and about five ultrasound scans are made daily.

An operating block was opened, staffed with three doctors. In January 2021, a nurse will join the team to assist during procedures. The most frequently performed procedure is a caesarean section. In fact, pregnant women were the most numerous group among the hospital’s patients in its first year of operation. An experienced gynaecologist sees patients twice a week, which encourages more and more women to give birth at hospital, which offers professional care.

Apart from a gynaecology clinic, the hospital also has a dental clinic, where a newly employed dentist treats patients.

To hear that you are doing a good job is the best reward for your effort. Under a project titled “Endowment of Wanda Błeńska’s Wanda Matugga Health Centre with equipment necessary to launch its medical activity”, financed by Polish Aid, we equipped a hospital no one in Matugga ever dreamed of before. One year ago, after finishing the first module of the project, the hospital was an outstanding health centre that provided services similar to those offered by other small health centres in Matugga. However, the Wanda Health Centre offered higher quality of care, better conditions, sterile, professionally equipped rooms and services of excellent specialists trained by their colleagues from Poland. Nowadays, after a year of hard work, one can hear more and more often that it is the best hospital in the Matugga area, and that the nearest facilities offering similar quality of care are located in Kampala”, said Karolina Szczepaniak, InnovAid coordinator for cooperation with Uganda.

 

Medical care in Uganda is fully paid and unfortunately patients staying in hospital wards are not provided with meals. Therefore, patient families have to prepare food for their relatives themselves. Thanks to a kitchen built at the hospital premises, the task is now much easier.

Next year, there are plans for the hospital to be added to the list of healthcare facilities offering services under private insurance, which is very popular in Uganda. So far, it was impossible due to complications and restrictions imposed on companies as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The consequences of the pandemic are most keenly felt by persons who had already been in a difficult situation even before it struck, which is true for many people living in Matugga. In Uganda, 200 to 300 people are diagnosed with coronavirus every day, which is not much compared to the situation in Poland, for instance. However, one should take into consideration the small number of tests administered daily. A local partner of the InnovAid Foundation informs that in recent months there has been a sharp rise in reported deaths from pneumonia, which may be due to an undiagnosed infection with coronavirus. 

Thanks to a call for proposals launched by the MFA titled “Polish humanitarian and development assistance in response to the COVID-19 pandemic”, the InnovAid Foundation received funds for a project involving the purchase of equipment for an intensive care unit:

• a ventilator operated by an anaesthesiologist employed from the hospital funds, who lives close to the hospital and can reach it quickly whenever such need arises.
• an incubator for premature babies, which proved useful soon after its purchase, when a child weighing just 1kg was born by a caesarean section.

 

Having in mind an unstable electric grid, the foundation also purchased a three-phase voltage booster. The voltage booster allows for a permanent voltage to be supplied to the new hospital equipment, ensuring both patient safety and reliability of equipment indispensable for treatment.

Apart from activities related to patient treatment in Matugga, the InnovAid Foundation prepared a game – Healthy Adventures with Bill. The game entertains and educates. To continue playing, the user has to answer quiz questions related to preventing coronavirus infection. The foundation hopes that the game will help the local community that is meant to use it to better memorise the rules of sanitary hygiene in a simple and friendly manner. This will help reduce the number of COVID-19 infections, and possibly – of infections with other diseases which spread in a similar way. The game will soon be available for mobile phones.

 

At the moment, the Matugga hospital admits about 18 patients each day. Apart from caring for pregnant women, the hospital also treats patients suffering from high blood pressure, diabetes and infectious diseases such as malaria and typhoid. From time to time, the hospital also treats road accident victims brought in by ambulance. It is also worth mentioning that each day about ten people are vaccinated as part of a free national vaccination scheme.

“If its wasn’t for the Wanda Błeńska hospital, many of these people wouldn’t have access to professional medical care, so we are happy that we were able to carry out this project.

Additional drugs and dressings, which we also managed to donate, will help the hospital in its daily work, as each day the facility admits more and more patients satisfied with medical care quality it provides. We hope that it will continue to help people from Matugga and its surrounding villages for many years to come”, said Karolina Szczepaniak, InnovAid coordinator for cooperation with Uganda.

 

Prepared on the basis of materials provided by InnovAid Foundation