Speaking to URN, Dr John Omagino the Executive Director of the Heart Institute said they had finally started construction of a tertiary facility at the 10 acre piece of land located at Naguru hill however while they have already opened two roads to access the facility, they remain with one blind spot which if not opened will affect the ferrying in of emergencies once the hospital is finally opened.
Phaneroo Ministries run by Apostle Grace Lubega has denied
Uganda Heart Institute, an access road in yet
another hurdle challenging the expansion of access to specialized care for heart
disease in Uganda.
Speaking to URN, Dr John Omagino the Executive Director of
the Heart Institute said they had finally started construction of a tertiary
facility at the 10-acre piece of land located at Naguru Hill however while they
have already opened two roads to access the facility, they remain with one
blind spot which if not opened will affect the ferrying in of emergencies once
the hospital is finally opened.
//Cue in:” The
facility of …
Cue out: … as they come”.
//
Construction of this
facility anticipated to end in 2027 started last week following years of fights
over ownership of this land. Construction had initially hit a slag as various
encroachers claimed ownership of the land.
In 2007, the government signed a Public-Private Partnership
Agreement with an investor, Opec Prime Properties, to redevelop the
Naguru-Nakawa housing estates into two ultra-modern sustainable satellite towns
but this obligation was not met, prompting the cabinet in 2018 to terminate the
contract.
The land was then repossessed by the Uganda Land Commission (ULC) but
then fights ensued involving several encroachers when it was allocated for
expansion of the heart institute which is currently housed at Mulago National
Referral Hospital.
However, later, during the COVID-19 lockdown, another
entity named Tendo Investments fenced one acre off the ten-acre land claiming
that they had a title for it.
This land row would
only be solved by the intervention of President Museveni who directed that the
land be allocated for construction of the 250-bed capacity facility.
Now, Omagino fears the fresh access road fights could hinder their plans for the facility and calls upon authorities to again intervene in
the access road row explaining that a state-of-the-art facility of this level
requires a ring road with several entrances to handle the high rates of traffic
anticipated.
However, when contacted by URN, Chris Kyerere the Chief
Operations Officer at Phaneroo said the Pentecostal Church was not consulted about
the road issue until last week. He said that the challenge is not with Phaneroo but
with the physical planners who didn’t make a provision for a road.
//Cue in:” They didn’t consult …
Cue out: … we are discussing”. //
He said they are in discussions with the Uganda Heart Institute
to come up with an amicable solution.
