Children's Surgical Hospital in Entebbe

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Patients Average Age

31,980

Outpatient Visits

4,565

Surgical Interventions

2021

Start of activities

Free Surgery for Children in a State-Of-The-Art Facility.

The Hospital

EMERGENCY opened the Children’s Surgical Hospital in Entebbe to provide free paediatric surgical care in Uganda, one of the youngest countries in the world: more than half the population is under 15. When the hospital first opened in 2021, the mortality rate for children under five in Uganda was 43 for every 1,000 live births.

The hospital is a point of reference in Uganda for elective paediatric surgery, with operations planned in advance and organised through waiting lists in order to systematically tackle deep-set problems in Uganda and nearby countries. The hospital’s three operating theatres are used for surgery every day, improving the life chances of hundreds of patients every year. The opening of the Children’s Surgical Hospital led to a tripling of the number of paediatric surgery beds in the country.

Elective surgery mainly deals with birth defects, urological and gynaecological problems, abnormalities in the gastrointestinal tract, illnesses of the bile duct and cheiloschisis (or cleft lip, which affects one in every 800 children) and other general surgical conditions.

The facility boasts 100,000ft² (9,700m²) of floor space, 72 beds – six in intensive care, 16 in sub-intensive care and 50 in the ward – one observation and stabilisation ward, six outpatient clinics, a diagnostic centre, a laboratory for analysis, a blood bank and a pharmacy, as well auxiliary services such as a canteen and a laundry. It also has a Guest House: free-of-charge accommodation for patients and families coming to the hospital from afar.

Training Local Staff

One of our most important long-term goals is to help produce a generation of trained, qualified young Ugandan doctors and nurses, who will in turn leave a long-term impact on the country’s healthcare system. Training activities and skills sessions at the hospital aim to eventually transfer responsibilities to local colleagues and reduce the number of international staff working at the hospital.

Today, about 400 Ugandans work at the Children’s Surgical Hospital, making up around 90% of all staff members.

The African Network of Medical Excellence

The Children’s Surgical Hospital in Entebbe is the second facility in the African Network of Medical Excellence (ANME). ANME is an initiative between EMERGENCY and representatives and authorities from across Africa to develop an integrated network of high-quality, free medical centres across the continent.

The Children’s Surgical Hospital provides – completely free of charge – elective paediatric surgical care according to the most advanced international standards, while simultaneously working to promote the autonomy of the Ugandan national healthcare system. The facility’s Regional Programme helps to create critical connections between different health systems to integrate the network and encourage collaborations.

The Regional Programme

Through the Regional Programme – and in collaboration with numerous local authorities – EMERGENCY’s medical team conducts screening missions to identify patients from a vast area who require transfer to Entebbe for urgent paediatric surgery, and guarantee the necessary follow-up care for patients who have already been operated on. Since the Regional Programme officially began accepting patients in 2023, the Children’s Surgical Hospital has treated children from seven other countries: Afghanistan, Burundi, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan and Tanzania.

The Regional Programme also coordinates between medical centres and health systems, bringing young medics from Uganda and neighbouring countries to the hospital for specialist training periods. These collaborations help to strengthen and increase the long-term sustainability of the local, national and regional health systems.

Healing Architecture

Our project began when Gino Strada, surgeon and founder of EMERGENCY, met Renzo Piano, one of the most famous architects in the world. Their challenge was to combine excellent surgery and excellent architecture, two disciplines that, on the surface, do not have much in common. The result of this combination was healing architecture.

The concept of healing architecture is very simple. Beauty is not just an aesthetic choice, it is part of treatment. It can have a physical and mental effect on patients and so play a part in healthcare. One of the guiding principles of the project was the idea of a hospital that was not just functional and efficient from a medical point of view, but also “scandalously beautiful.” It would respect the dignity of the patients and their surroundings.

Every detail of the hospital was built with children in mind. The walls are covered in pictures, colour is everywhere, large windows fill the rooms with light and the garden offers a place to play. All these things were designed to convey peace and safety, to make our young patients feel at home. They reflect something that to us is essential: putting patients, their needs, their personalities, their fears and their rights, at the centre of everything.

When is a hospital a decent hospital? When it’s capable of treating your child. End of story. Anything else is just hot air. If it’s good enough for your child, then it’s good enough for Ugandan, Afghan and Sierra Leonean children too. But if your child is in need and the first thing you think of is how to rescue him or her, then you’re taking advantage of someone. And we’ve never liked that. That’s never been our way of doing things.
Gino Strada at EMERGENCY'S XV national meeting in Genova, 2016

What most struck me that day was something Gino said: “I want a scandalously beautiful hospital.” Those two words together were the perfect plan, not to mention a promise: we would bring the best of our skills, all the facilities, technologies and resources needed. As Gino says, it is a duty to share the best results we have achieved, be it in medicine, surgery or architecture.
Renzo Piano

ONE YEAR OF CLINICAL ACTIVITIES AT THE CHILDREN'S SURGICAL HOSPITAL

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One Year of Activities at the Children’s Surgical Hospital in Entebbe

Uganda

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Joint Declaration Signed by 12 African Health Authority Delegations

Sustainability

The Children’s Surgical Hospital is a project of medical, health, economic and environmental sustainability.

The facility’s load-bearing walls are made of rammed earth, a simple and cheap construction method. By applying the architectural principles used in traditional house building, we maximised the facility’s ingenuity and environmental efficiency.

The hospital is also equipped with 2,500 solar panels, which provide part of the electricity needed by the building, reducing energy costs.

And, as in our other EMERGENCY hospitals, there is a garden, with 350 trees. Beautiful green spaces are an important part of patient recovery and healing.

AKSHAL’S STORY

Akshal was one of our first patients arrived at the hospital. His father stopped our systems technician, Livio, on the road, after spotting the EMERGENCY logo on his T-shirt. He asked him if what they were saying was true, that the new hospital was treating children free of charge. His four-year-old son was losing the use of his left hand due to a burn that had turned into a scar, and he could not find the money for the operation. Livio, with his customary frankness, told him that his job was to fix the pipes. He did not know if we would be able to do something about Akshal’s hand, but they could certainly
come to the hospital and have it looked at. Akshal’s operation went well. The day after he was already scampering up and down the corridors between the wards, with his mother and the nurses hot on his heels.

Children’s Surgical Hospital in Entebbe

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