Jolan Enterprises (U) Ltd, a company that deals in medical supply and industrial PPEs donated three medicine dispensing trollies for a unit dose system and five million Uganda shillings to Lacor Hospital on Thursday 3^rd November 2022.

Speaking after receiving the donations, Sr. Josephine Oyella, the head of the Pharmacy department said the equipment will improve efficiency and minimize errors in drug administration. “At the moment, the unit dose system only covers Surgery I & II, Trauma and Medicine wards. This new addition will allow us to expand to other wards and ensure patients get drugs in real-time,” she says.

Ms. Anna Akumu, the CEO of Jolan Enterprises who was accompanied by Anena Lilian, the company’s PRO said the money shall be used to support blood donation campaigns in partnership with the regional blood bank.

Blood supply is one of the biggest challenges in providing quality care to patients at St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor. “We are facing a very serious shortage. The supply we get from the regional blood bank is not even a quarter of what we consume within the hospital,” says Richard Ojara, a Laboratory Technician at the hospital.

According to Richard, the hospital requires at least forty units of blood a day to be able to meet the demands, and more than 70% of those go to the children’s ward. At least three out of ten patients admitted to the hospital are children. Most of them suffer from severe malaria, one of the top killer diseases in the country, sickle cell anemia as well as anemia with unknown causes.

“As of today, we have admitted 143 children and we have transfused 136 in a period of seven days,” says Ayot Grace Flona, the In-charge Children’s Ward. “On a daily basis we can transfuse at least 24 but the number is low because there’s no blood and the lab is not able to respond in time. We require more than 30 units in a day,” Grace adds.

The other unit that consumes a lot of blood in the hospital is the maternity. Lacor delivers between 90-120 babies in a month, more than any other health facility in the region. Here, expectant mothers and their attendants are prepared in advance, especially those going for C-Section so that there’s blood when the time of need arrives.

Dr. Martin Ogwang, the institutional Director, applauded Jolan Enterprises for giving back to the community. This is not the first time Jolan is giving to Lacor. In August this year, Jolan donated food and non-food items to children undergoing cancer treatment at the hospital. Their staff also donated about ten units of blood to save lives in the children’s & maternity wards.