Jinja regional blood bank breaking ground set for October

JINJA - Jinja Regional Referral Hospital is set to commence construction of a regional blood bank.

“We don’t have a regional blood bank but we are working with a number of stakeholders to see how this can be addressed. And I am glad a partner has already taken it up. From October this year, we shall be groundbreaking to construct a regional blood bank with support from Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA),” he said.  

Hospital director Dr Alfred Yayi disclosed this on Tuesday, July 22, 2025, while interacting with Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (central), which at the time was being steered by Mawogola South lawmaker Gorett Namugga (NUP).

According to Yayi, the long-awaited development shall go a long way in boosting maternal care services and reducing preventable deaths.

“On average, we lose about 10 babies a month and for the mothers, we lose about one to two per quarter. It is a remarkable improvement, because a while ago we were losing between three and four mothers a quarter,” he stated.

About the hospital

Jinja Regional Referral Hospital started out in the 1930s’ as a health unit for World War II combatants. It was later upgraded to a district hospital and eventually to a regional referral hospital in 1995.

The 500-bed capacity hospital uniquely has two campuses. The main one where the rest of the departments sit, and another at Nalufenya where the children’s department sits.

The facility serves a population of over 4.3 million drawn from one city and 11 districts.

The latter include Jinja, Iganga, Kamuli, Mayuge, Namutumba, Bugweri, Buyende, Luuka, Kaliro, Namayingo and Bugiri.

Its mandate includes training of healthcare professionals, technical supervision to lower-level health facilities, research, provision of public health services in the region, among others.

“We deliver between 15 and 20 mothers daily. And about 500 to 600 mothers every month. We are quite a busy centre. Of those, about 170 are usually delivered by caesarean section,” Yayi explained.

However, the hospital is grappling with infrastructure challenges. Something, he says they are trying to mitigate by working with other health facilities. 

“We have a neonatal intensive care unit has 13 incubators, although the number of babies we receive through this ICU for the neonates is about 30 babies on average per month,” he added. 

“In Nalufenya campus, we have a bed capacity of 80 beds for the children, but receive about 150 to 200 babies every month. Again, you can see that the working space is quite limited. The population has grown, but the infrastructure has remained the same for some time now,” Yayi argued.