The International Specialized Hospital of Uganda (ISHU) is a public, specialized, referral tertiary care medical facility under construction in

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The ...

. The hospital is expected to take two years to construct. The private developers who are constructing the hospital will operate it for ten years, then turn it over to the

government of Uganda Uganda is a presidential republic in which the President of Uganda is the head of state and the prime minister is the head of government business. There is a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is ...

, in a public-private partnership arrangement.

Location

The facility is located off of the

Kampala–Entebbe Road The Kampala–Entebbe Road, also known as the Entebbe–Kampala Road or the Entebbe Road, is a road in the Central Region of Uganda, connecting the capital city of Kampala and Entebbe International Airport. Location The road starts on Kampala ...

, in

Lubowa Lubowa is a location in Wakiso District of the Central Region of Uganda. It is a suburb of Kampala, the capital of Uganda and the largest city in that country. Location Lubowa is bordered by Kabowa to the north, Najjanankumbi and Makindye to ...

Wakiso District Wakiso District is a district in the Central Region of Uganda that partly encircles Kampala, Uganda's capital city. The town of Wakiso is the site of the district headquarters. Kira, the country's second largest city and suburb of Kampala, is ...

, in the Central Region, of Uganda, approximately , by road, south of

Mulago National Referral Hospital Mulago National Specialised Hospital, also known as Mulago National Referral Hospital, is a component of Mulago Hospital Complex, the teaching facility of Makerere University College of Health Sciences. It is the largest public hospital in Ug ...

, in

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and R ...

, the largest city and

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...

of Uganda. The hospital would sit on approximately , of land, formerly occupied by a coffee plantation.

Overview

The ISHU is a specialized referral, tertiary treatment, research, and teaching hospital, which is intended to treat patients travelling out of the country to seek specialized medical care. In 2017, it was estimated that Ugandan patients spent an estimated US$186 million on medical treatment abroad. On 1 June 2017, the president of Uganda,

Yoweri Museveni Yoweri Kaguta Museveni Tibuhaburwa (born 15 September 1944) is a Ugandan politician and retired senior military officer who has been the 9th and current President of Uganda since 26 January 1986. Museveni spearheaded rebellions with aid of then ...

, performed the groundbreaking ceremony for the hospital. The development, designed by the architectural firm of ''Progetto CMR'', of

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, consists of nine buildings. These include the 260+ bed hospital, an outpatient department to handle 100 outpatients daily, housing for doctors, nurses and support staff, conference facilities, at least one hotel and a shopping centre. The hospital is expected to cover a wide range of medical and surgical conditions, including organ transplants, neurosurgical operations, various cancers and orthopedic surgery and cardiac operations and treatments. The hospital design involves the installation of solar panels on the roofs of the buildings, to generate electricity and reduce the power purchased from the national grid. The design also involves the installation of rain-water harvesting systems, to reduce the amount of water purchased from the

National Water and Sewerage Corporation The National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) is a water supply and sanitation company in Uganda. It is wholly owned by the government of Uganda. Location The company, as of July 2018, was in the final stages of construction of its new hea ...

International collaboration

Following completion, a 10-year operation period will be accorded to the developers, in order for them to recoup their investment. Following that, the ownership of the institution will revert to the Ugandan government. The facility is expected to attract referrals from the countries of the

African Great Lakes The African Great Lakes ( sw, Maziwa Makuu; rw, Ibiyaga bigari) are a series of lakes constituting the part of the Rift Valley lakes in and around the East African Rift. They include Lake Victoria, the second-largest fresh water lake in th ...

region. In September 2018, the

Daily Monitor The ''Daily Monitor'' is a Ugandan independent daily newspaper. Its name is shared by the ''Saturday Monitor'' and ''Sunday Monitor'', which are also published by Monitor Publications Limited. ''Daily Monitor'' averaged a daily circulation of 24, ...

reported that the Ugandan Cabinet had resolved to ban the use of public funds to treat government officials and politicians at foreign medical facilities, once this hospital is completed. This will save government an estimated US$7–10 million every year.

Parliamentary approval

In March 2019, the

Parliament of Uganda The parliament of Uganda is the country's legislative body. Unicameral, the most significant of the Ugandan parliament's functions is to pass laws that will provide good governance in the country. The government ministers are bound to answer t ...

approved a government guarantee of US$379.7 million (USh1.3 trillion) to construct this hospital. A consortium comprising Finasi of

and ROKO Construction Limited of Uganda, was selected to construct the hospital. The facility will include an 80-bed cancer centre.

References

External links