KUMIHOSPITAL
Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation Services
Introduction:
The Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation Services in KumiHospital is comprised of the Orthopaedic Surgery Unit (Operating room, Orthopaedic ward, and Children’s OrthopaedicRehabilitationVillage), Physiotherapy Unit, Occupational Therapy Unit, Orthopaedic Workshop and The Community Based Rehabilitation Program.
Staffing:
There is one Orthopaedic Surgeon, one more in training in Mulago/Makerere University and hopefully, one local doctor will also join the training program at Makerere next academic year in August 2010.
There are two Physiotherapists, two Physiotherapy assistants, one patient counselor, one social worker, one Occupational Therapist, One Orthopaedic Officer and nine Orthopaedic Workshop staff. The Community Based Rehabilitation Program has seven field workers for a geographical area that covers seven Districts of Amuria, Katakwi, Soroti, Kumi, Kaberamaido, Pallisa and Bukedea.
Our department on average performs one thousand surgeries per annum seven hundred of whom are children and treats about three thousand out patients every year.
Disease and Poverty
The types of conditions that we deal with include congenital deformities such as club feet, Blounts disease, angular bone deformities, bone and joint infections from pus forming bacteria, tuberculosis of the spine and joints, HIV/AIDS related illness, trauma, cancer of bones, consequences of malaria and its treatment like cerebral palsy, Gluteal fibrosis, Quadriceps fibrosis, post quinine injection paralysis of the sciatic nerve and many others.
Most of the diseases have a direct link with abject poverty.
Uganda is one of the least developed nations on earth with a population of 30 million people and with the growth rate of 4.2%. Half of Uganda’s population is under the age of 15years and 80% are rural. They depend on largely subsistence agriculture which is weather dependent. More than 38% of Uganda’s population lives below the poverty line.
Uganda has only 28 Orthopaedic Surgeons, including expatriates and most of them are based in the Capital City of Kampala, 300 KM from Kumi.This is because, Kampala has better infrastructure for health and the population in the city is richer than the population in the villages of Kumi.
The region served by the Hospital with specialized Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Services covers the geographical East and North Eastern parts of Uganda with an approximate population of 8 million people. This same region is the most economically depressed region of Uganda, and it suffered the full effects of the wars that ravaged Uganda in the recent past, including the brutal war by the Lords Resistance Army of Joseph Kony.
The same region has also suffered very bad weather drought alternating with floods with devastating effects on crops and harvest. People in this regions have suffered severe food shortages and out right famine. These are direct consequences of environmental degradation and global warming. The same harsh conditions have impacted negatively on health care delivery and the children with disabilities are the most affected.
KumiHospital is faced with a huge task of providing the much needed help in Orthopaedic care. We thank CBM (Christian Blind Mission) for its support in this endeavor. We are also aware that CBM’s resources are not limitless and have obligations to so many projects around the world and hence can not completely meet the dire needs of Kumi.The poverty stricken disabled children of Kumi need much more and we are prepared to provide surgical help if we are supported to deliver it.
To provide orthopaedic surgery is costly and it demands lots of resources.
A cost analysis has been done and it costs Euros 200 to have a child with disability have surgery and post surgical rehabilitation.
Any help that is given to Kumi, supplement the support from CBM towards meeting the cost of rehabilitating a disabled poor child will help Kumi break the cycle of dehumanizing poverty.
We humbly appeal to you to support us fight the burden of Poverty and Disease.
Many blessings from Kumi.
Dr. John Ekure, Orthopaedic Surgeon, KumiHospital.
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