Lira, Uganda — In a striking transformation over the past five years, Lira Regional Referral Hospital has increased its number of medical specialists from just two to 17, enabling the facility to provide advanced life-saving services such as intensive care, dialysis, and cancer management.
The Acting Hospital Director, Dr. Andrew Odur, told journalists on Saturday during a media tour of the hospital, the addition of specialists had positioned the facility to manage complex medical conditions that once required referral to facilities in Kampala.
“From only two specialists five years ago, we now have 17 on the ground. These are physicians, gynecologists, pediatricians, ICU experts, nephrologists, ENT and eye surgeons, and orthopedic surgeons. This change has had a direct impact on our ability to run services like dialysis, CT scans, ICU, and cancer care,” Dr. Odur said.
The hospital now operates a functional Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with four active ventilators, supported by eight (8) total units. It has also onboarded an anesthesiologist, essential for managing critically ill patients.
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“ICU patients require round-the-clock monitoring and emergency intervention. With specialists in place, we are no longer depending on transfers or remote consultations. Care is now immediate and local,” he added.
Lira Hospital’s dialysis unit, equipped with six machines, has completed over 1,900 sessions in just two years. The service, once only available in Kampala, is now accessible to patients in northern Uganda and beyond.
“Many of our patients, including pregnant women suffering from acute kidney injury, now recover here. Before, they were referred to Mulago or Kiruddu. We’re saving lives that would have been lost in transit,” said Dr Odur.
The hospital currently attends to about 300 dialysis sessions per month, and the demand continues to grow.
A game-changer in emergency care has been the introduction of the region’s only Type C Advanced Life Support Ambulance – essentially a moving ICU. The ambulance features a ventilator, defibrillator, monitors for vital signs, and the ability to administer treatments en route.
“Since we introduced this ambulance, we have recorded a 10% reduction in maternal deaths due to pregnancy complications. It’s equipped to manage breathing, blood pressure, infections, and bleeding before the patient even reaches the hospital,” he said.
In total, 12 ambulances are now coordinated through a central emergency dispatch centre recently completed at the hospital.
A newly installed power line from the Lira substation has kept the hospital blackout-free since March 2024. This stable power supply supports sensitive equipment, including the oxygen plant, CT scan, and dialysis machines, while slashing generator fuel costs.
The hospital oxygen plant, commissioned in early 2024, produces up to 100 cylinders daily and supplies 16 health facilities in the Lango sub-region and beyond, including parts of Karamoja and Bunyoro. Oxygen is also piped directly to the wards and ICU, eliminating delays associated with cylinder delivery.
The hospital’s satellite laboratory, built with support from Uganda Covid-19 Response and Emergency Preparedness Project (UCREPP), with funding from the World Bank, is SANAS-accredited, an international gold standard. It provides a full menu of diagnostic services, from cancer screenings to organ function tests.
Among the key additions are the COBAS e411 and COBAS c311 machines, which allow doctors to conduct a wide range of tests quickly and with great precision.
The COBAS e411 machine is particularly useful for thyroid function tests, prostate cancer screening, and heart disease detection, while the COBAS c311 is designed for diagnosing liver and kidney diseases through lipid profile and electrolyte analysis.
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These machines are capable of processing hundreds of tests per hour, reducing patient waiting time and improving service delivery.
“In the last financial year alone, we carried out over 300,000 lab tests. This includes early cancer detection, monitoring chronic illness, and wellness screenings,” said Dr Odur.
Lira Hospital has also embraced a paperless system through Electronic Medical Records (EMR), improving accountability, cutting paper costs, and ensuring better tracking of medication and treatment pathways.
Despite the advances, the hospital still faces challenges. With 456 beds serving a population of 2.65 million across 10 districts, bed occupancy regularly exceeds 128%. Staffing remains at 79% of the required norm, and storage space for medicine is insufficient.
“We are working with local governments to ensure health centre IIs and IIIs are functional to reduce unnecessary referrals. Our focus must be on handling specialised, complicated cases — not malaria and cough,” Dr Odur emphasized.
