Nyakahanga Designated District Hospital

The Nyakahanga Designated District Hospital was started in 1912 as a small first aid unit. In 1953, the unit was expanded into a 60-bed hospital and in 1965 the hospital was again extended to 200 beds. Swedish, German and Danish Lutheran churches assisted the hospital with personnel and equipment etc. all over the years.

Nyakahanga became a District Hospital in 1972 and a Designated District Hospital in 1992. Members of the Tanzanian government and the ELCT Karagwe Diocese form the Board of Governors while the ELCT Karagwe Diocese still retains the hospital ownership. The hospital has a bed capacity of 200. It provides both curative and preventive services. Three ELCT dispensaries as Ibamba, Nyakatera and Karagwe Secondary are supervised by the hospital. The Tanzanian government is responsible for the recurrent expenditure. The diocese as owner of the hospital is responsible for the capital expenditures.

Room with patients. (Photo: Dr. Kashashari)

In the last years the provision of health care services went on smoothly. The average OPD attendance decreased slightly to 131 patients per day compared to 135 in 2006. The bed occupancy rate was 117% (An increase of 2% compared to the previous year). Children under five and pregnant women accounted for 66% of all admissions. Caesarean sections accounted for 67% of all major operations performed. Malaria continued to be a major cause of OPD attendances, admissions and deaths as well. The HIV seropositivity among blood donors in the year 2007 was 18.5% (An increase of 0.7% compared to 2006).

The AMREF specialist outreach programme was carried out as scheduled. The hospital received the following specialists: Gynaecologist, Urologist, Physician, Paediatrician, and Orthopaedic Surgeon.
Government grants were received in time except for some few occasions. The hospital pharmacies improved the availability of drugs and other supplies.

Water supply to the hospital improved markedly after the completion of the water tank at Nyakagera water source, though the main saver tank with the capacity of 120,000 Litres started leaking due to rust and old age. Due to the support by Rotary club of Stillwaters and Rotary club of Karagwe, the tank could be repaired.

Generally the partners from abroad continued to support the hospital financially, materially and in terms of personnel.

Achievements

Labratory with microscopes. (Photo: Dr. Kashashari)

Renovation of the laboratory and ward Entebbe;
Employment of 16 staff of different cadre to cover for major deficiency in areas of nursing, clinicians, records and doctors;
Secondment of 12 staff (8 Nurses and 4 Medical Attendants) from Karagwe District Council;
Maintaining the sponsorship of training of staff. Ten staff members graduated in 2007 ( 2 doctors, 5 nurses,1 physiotherapist, 1 pharmaceutical technician, 1 hospital technician);
Facilitate malaria prevention by providing treated mosquito nets to vulnerable groups;
Strategies put forward to reduce delay in late payment of staff promotion and salary areas.

Challenges

Highly trained staff leaves. This causes great deficiency in trained cadre staff;
Financial gap in the budget results in big loans to the facility;
There are no drugs and medical equipments available. This causes shortage at the medical stores department;
Delay in disbursement of grants for recurrent expenditures;
Insufficient funds to support training and retention of staff.

Plans

To renovate the Infusion Unit;
To purchase the Laundry Roller Ironer machine;
To build two soak away pits for sewage collections;
Computer networking to departments and training of health workers on IT;
Installing two washing machines and dryers;
To recruit a pharmacist and two pharmaceutical technicians, clinicians and nurses.

Contact

Further information through Dr. Kashashari or Dr. Andrew per Email: doctor-nyakahanga@kad.or.tz.

Text: Dr. Kashashari