Mengo Hospital Rotary Dialysis Centre is a humanitarian project (under the disease prevention and treatment area of focus) by the Rotary Club of Kampala South in District 9213.
In partnership with The Rotary Club of Giridih in India D3250, Rotary clubs of Berlin International, RC Berlin Pankow, RC of Madras, RC of Madras Coromandel, RC Taipei Ricardo, RC Taipei Success, RC Taipei Merci & RC Taipei Leadership Village with a grant from The Rotary Foundation.
Mengo hospital provided the space, a nephrologist, and specialized nurses to operate the unit. It was commissioned on 21st January 2022 by a representative of the Minister of Health and overseen by District Governor D9213 John Magezi Ndamira. It is a 3-bed hemodialysis unit with the capacity to operate up to 7 beds.
Hemodialysis is a treatment to filter wastes and water from your blood, as your kidneys did when they were healthy. It’s a treatment that takes over your kidney functions if those organs stop doing their job. Dialysis is the process of artificial waste removal from the human body in case of kidney failure.
The monthly cost of dialysis at the two government facilities where the services are offered averages $200 to $947 varying with the availability of consumables. Both centers combined can only offer a maximum output of 441 sessions of hemodialysis per week against the unmet need of 120,000 sessions per week (These figures are even higher in the 6 private facilities where dialysis is provided).
The Rotary Club of Kampala South shall oversee the implementation of the project and do monthly
monitoring, evaluating, and review of the work of the center. The club participated in the community assessment, planning the project, identifying partners to support the project, overseeing and supervising project implementation, managing grant funds, contracting local vendors and service providers, participating in the community outreach programs, promoting Rotary through the project, maintaining communication and dialogue with international partners and TRF, undertaking reporting responsibilities and raising part of the grant funds.
The project will address chronic kidney disease ailments. Kidney disease is now recognized as a major problem worldwide affecting people of all calibers and socioeconomic statuses. Newborns, children, teenagers, mothers as a complication of pregnancy and childbirth, productive youths, middle-aged, and seniors. On a monthly basis, this hospital receives about 400 patients with kidney ailments that they are not in a position to handle.
The country presently has only 50 dialysis nurses and 8 Doctors specializing in kidney care and teaching. This puts each of the nephrologists in charge of 5 million Ugandans and the Uganda Kidney Foundation (UKF) has since called upon, private and public players to help close this gap. The estimated number of patients needing Dialysis Services in the country is about 40,000 per month, as per the Kidney Foundation.
