ARUA RRH

Arua Regional Referral Hospital, commonly known as Arua Hospital, is located in Arua
district,approximately 480 km northwest of Kampala . It is the regional referral health facility for
the Northwestern Uganda Sub­region commonly referred to as West Nile. It is the referral hospital
for the districts of Adjumani, Arua, Koboko, Maracha, Moyo, Nebbi, Yumbe, and Zombo which
comprise the Sub­region.

The hospital also receives referrals from neighboring parts of South Sudan and the Democratic
Republic of the Congo. It boasts some old building from its infancy in the 1930s but its centerpiece
is a new 144­ bed Wing and a 20­bed private Self­contained Ward that were completed in June
2010. Its total Capacity

Arua Hospital was elevated to a regional referral facility in 1994. The Hospital is a public hospital,
funded by the Uganda Ministry of Health and general care in the hospital is free. It is one of the
thirteen (14) Regional Referral Hospitals in Uganda. The hospital is designated as one of the fifteen
(15) Internship Hospitals in Uganda where graduates of Ugandan medical schools can serve one
year of internship under the supervision of qualified specialists and consultants. The bed capacity of
Arua Hospital by April 2015 stood at 372­beds according to its director Dr.Beranrd Odu.

Mission Statement
To provide to the people of North Western region of Uganda quality general and specialized health
services in a client centered manner while underscoring the virtuous principles and values of equity,
non­discrimination and transparency that will transform the people into a productive population.

Services
 To offer comprehensive specialized curative, promotive, preventive rehabilitative
health care services in the area.

 To offer tertiary training and continuing professional Development (CPD).

The hospital gets up to 250­300 out patients everyday with about 30 patients being admitted. That
patient load, especially in the OPD, is quite high. Arua Hospital's catchment is about 3.5 million
people that includes about 500,000 people from the neighboring countries of the Democratic
Republic of Congo and South Sudan. These members pile pressure on the hospital resources and
health workers especially medical doctors..

Dr. Odua says the hospital has come up with copying mechanisms like task shifting where
management for instance asks nurses to do counseling besides carrying out their nursing duties.

The hospitals' staffing level is about 80%, although it keeps changing due to limited
accommodation for health workers , it is set to improve when the housing units under construction
for nurses who form about 70% of the hospital staff are completed. The hospital has a 10­year plan
to acquire houses for all the staff. The six units for nursing officers under construction were
scheduled to be completed in the 2014 / 15 financial year.

Arua Hospital also has in recent years benefited form the public private partnership initiative,
especially the SUSTAIN / USAID project. The hospital laboratory was expanded and HIV / AIDS
equipment secured.

The refurbished laboratory was recently accredited three – star rating by the East African Public
Health Laboratory Network.

The same project has helped the hospital refurbish and furnish the laboratory with new equipment.

In SUSTAIN's package there is also provision for HIV care, where the project has helped with
recruitment of about 50 health workers ( 25 staff and 25 volunteers) for the hospital.

Financial Performance

The total revised budget for FY 2014/15 for project 1004 was Ug shs 999 million, of which 100%
was released and Ug shs 945.7 million (94.6%) spent by 30 th June 2015. Detailed expenditures are
shown in the table below.

Table showing Capital development payments for Arua Regional Referral Hospital, by 30 th
June 2015

Project Contractor Contract Sum Payments in FY

2015/15
Construction of the six M/s ROHI Services 1,001,744,280 330,059,780
unit staff house Limited
Construction of the M/s Ambitious 512,034,863 494,087,958
Lagoon Construction

Limited
Consultancy services M/s Joadah Consult 52,493,500 20,997,400
for supervision

and remodeling of the

maternity ward

(Outstanding balance)
Payment of retention M/s KG Adubango 853,171,190 37,734,072
for the
Construction and
 construction of a
perimeter wall Engineering works
Payment of balance M/s Changeling 68,577,705 13,852,635
and retention for Engineering

improvement of waste Limited

water drainage

system
Payment of retention M/s Blessed 30,318,750 3,031,875
for supervision Investment

services for Limited

Improvement of water

drainage system

Physical performance

A hospital lagoon has been constructed: the project was awarded to M/s Ambitious Construction
Company Limited at a contract sum of Ug shs 512,034,863. Construction works commenced on 13
th September 2014 and were completed in January 2015. The project was designed and supervised
by M/s KK Partnership Architect at a cost of Ug shs 46,020,000. The project was handed over to
the hospital and is functional .

As a result of completion of the lagoon, the 320 bed storey medical ward was operationalized.
Previously, this ward had not been commissioned since its completion in FY 2012/13 due to lack of
a lagoon at the hospital.
 Completed Lagoon at Arua Regional Referral Hospital

Six unit houses constructed; this contract was awarded to M/s Rohi Services Limited at a contract
sum of Ug shs 1,001,744,280. Works commenced in May 2013 and were expected to be completed
by May 2014, however due to budget cuts of over Ug shs 400million during FY 2013/14, the
project was rolled over to FY 2014/15. Budget cuts continued to affect the project progress,
however construction of the super structured was finally completed.
Six unit staff house at Arua Regional Referral Hospital