General Information

Mbale Regional Referral Hospital is designated to serve 11 districts in the sub region, but often serves patients from Soroti and Karamoja as well. It is a teaching hospital for Clinical Officers and soon will be upgraded to become a University teaching hospital training medical officers and graduate nurses.

Location

Mbale Regional Referral Hospital is the heart of Mbale Municipal Council and is located in the eastern region of Uganda, 240 km east of Kampala.

Paediatric Facilities

The department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Mbale Regional Referral Hospital (MRRH) in Mbale district is a regional hospital serving the district and its environs. It has a bed capacity of 90 beds and serves as a paediatric referral centre for the eleven districts in the eastern region of Uganda.

Child health services were started in 1924 when the hospital was established, and the full fledged department of Paediatrics and Child Health started in the late 1960s. To date the department offers general as well as specialized services in child health, training for clinical officers, intern doctors and in-service training sessions for almost all cadres of health workers.

On the clinical front, the department has one general ward, one acute care unit and two specialized wards namely the nutrition unit and the Masaba wing paediatrics ward (private ward). It also operates a daily outpatient clinic and two specialized clinics per week in a dedicated outpatient department. The special clinic in children’s ward 3 is run once a week on Wednesdays in the morning hours while the special clinic in the private wing is run on Wednesday afternoons.

The department consists of two paediatricians, one medical officer and one public health specialist who also doubles as a clinician. Two clinical officers are attached to the outpatient department. In this huge department, there are only 18 nurses. The paediatric wing also houses a simple laboratory for basic laboratory tests.

The total patient number admitted and treated in the department varies from year to year, but an average of 12,000 patients (range in the last 5 years being 10,000 to 19,000). All the medical services offered in the department are free of charge.

Training of clinical officers takes place yearly. On average, 400 students go through the department for both pre-clinical and clinical year studies. postgraduate students and organizations.

Mission Statement

"To provide general and specialised health services to the catchment area for improved quality of life."