By KT Reporter
Lira Regional Referral Hospital (LRRH) is conducting reverse referral of patients in an attempt to improve services and avoid medical delays.
Reversed referral is when a patient who was referred to a higher-level facility for specialised care is sent back or retained at the lower-level facility for follow-ups and care. This may occur due to various reasons, ranging from overcrowding at the higher-level facility, lack of resources, and inappropriate referrals, where patients may be referred to a higher-level facility when their condition could be managed at a lower-level facility.
However, at Lira Regional Referral Hospital, which now has over 15, coming to 20 specialities, the authorities dispatch their team to the lower-level facility to attend to the patient who has been referred in respect to need. In 2024, the hospital registered 99,053 outpatient (OPD) attendance, 4,586 referrals in and only 277 referrals out.
Peter Okello Odeke, the Principal Hospital Administrator, explained that the service has solved the problem of delays and complications which would arise during the transportation of clients.
He continued saying, “We also do a lot of reviews of other hard conditions, including death, especially maternal death, by what we call the local maternity network, where the facilities can talk with the regional hospital to appreciate the challenges they meet in handling the patients.”
According to Odeke, LRRH has also received an increase in medicine budget allocation to manage out-of-stocks of medical supplies.
“But even then, where they may occur, we usually make supplementary emergency orders to National Medical Stores (NMS) that are delivered.” He added. Currently, LRRH is offering specialised services such as dialysis, radiology, orthopaedics, obstetrics and gynaecology, medicine, paediatrics, and general surgery, among others.
Okello Odeke called the community to embrace good health-seeking behaviours by utilising the facilities available at the hospital. “All these structures can be there and can easily become white elephants if the services are not available and also not utilised by the community.”
Meanwhile, it should be noted that LRRH still lacks specialists such as emergency physicians, anesthesiologists, and pathologists.
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