Thursday 31st August – Part 1

We went to Mulago hospital, to visit the main national referral hospital. The most obvious problem was that the unit was badly organised from a use of space perspective. The rooms were badly laid out, and full of filing cabinets, yet the corridors were vast and under utilised. Half of the eye unit was on one side of the hospital, and half on the other, so it was difficult to optimise the position without taking a holistic view of the whole hospital.

Mulago was rather a depressing place – the wards were very large, with rows of patients like a military hospital. The eye unit operating theatre was of a much lower standard than at Mengo, and whilst they also had access to the main theatre, they didn’t use it because it was too far from the wards, and they would also have to move equipment each time.

That said, the hospital’s main ophthalmologist was clearly a very dedicated man, and we learned that they work closely with Mengo, and have some specialised lasers enabling them to do more advanced work than Mengo. We didn’t see this – it was in yet another part of the hospital. It was clear that the hospital as a whole needed replanning – I couldn’t believe that it was only the eye unit that was so disjointed.