UCI Staff Appreciated For Their Continued Commitment to Care For Patients During COVID-19 Pandemic.
By Adiga Julius
The UCI Executive Director, Dr. Jackson Orem thanked the staff for their commitment to work and putting service above self.
In his annual letter to the staff, Dr. Orem stated that their commitment to patient care has been extraordinary during the COVID-19 pandemic and he conveyed sincere gratitude to the staff for their selflessness despite the rising patient numbers.
He added that over the last year, the Institute received almost 7000 new cancer patients at both Mulago and Mbarara Regional Cancer Centers. He thanked the staff for rising to meet the increasing demand for cancer care services and continuing to uphold the image of the Institute.
“There were nearly 63,000 in-patient days and 65,000 out-patient days which all could not have been possible without our dedicated staff,” Dr. Orem said.
He said had more than 90% availability of essential chemotherapy drugs for the patients and in the third quarter alone, adding that UCI fulfilled 151,958 prescriptions of which about 27,000 were chemotherapy infusions.
“Throughout the FY 2019/2020, our availability of the major key anticancer medicines has been at 95%. This means that 43 out of 45 key essential medicines have been available through the year Dr. Orem noted”
All clinical departments and the surgical department have improved access to surgical services; our community outreach program did more education which has resulted in getting more patients attending our screening clinics and an endoscopy clinic that is making the service more accessible Dr. Orem explained in the letter.
He said the radiotherapy department also expanded with the coming on board of the second radiotherapy machine in the upper radiotherapy building which has significantly reduced radio-therapy downtime and reduced the waiting period for patients to access radiotherapy services at UCI.
The Executive Director later handed over an appreciation letter to every member of UCI staff and UCI-branded two face-masks.
