Outpatient Department – Matany Hospital

OPD serves as an entry point for patients seeking services from Matany Hospital. According to its established function in the District Health System, the Hospital should offer to the public outpatient consultations of first contact exclusively for the immediate catchment’s area of the Hospital (Matany Sub County), outpatient consultations of referral level (for referred patients only), inpatient and emergency services and a package of preventive and promotive services (for the immediate catchment area i.e. Bokora Health Sub District). This functional role has been carried on over the last year.

Working schedule is from 08:00HRS to 18:00HRS from Monday to Friday and from 08:00HRS to 13:00HRS on Saturday.

Laboratory and radiology departments complement the functioning of OPD; in order to ensure diagnostic services, and guarantee quality of care provided to the out patients, these departments are kept functional throughout the OPD work schedule.

Trend of Outpatient Attendance in the period 2017/18 to 2021/22

List of Top ten OPD diagnoses in Financial Years 2019/20 to 2021/22

The total OPD attendance in Napak district was 127,205 patients. Malaria, simple pneumonia with cough or cold, diarrhoeal and skin diseases contribute the highest disease burden in the community. Low utilisation of mosquito nets contributes to the high malaria prevalence. In February 2020 the government conducted mass distribution of mosquito nets which is key in prevention of malaria transmission. Hygiene related diseases still make a big percentage of causes for OPD attendance in the HSD. Relevant district authorities need to intensify water and sanitation programmes. Injuries due to road traffic accidents, domestic violence and bar brawls are on the increase. Most injuries are attributed to the high levels of alcohol consumption in the community. The prevalence of alcohol use in the Karamoja is 54.5%. Simple pneumonia with cough cases have increased by 1.2%. This could be due to COVID -19 pandemic which presents with respiratory symptoms. Bacterial conjunctivitis has increased by 37.4%. This is related to poor hygiene. The district has only two ophthalmic clinical officers and one ophthalmic assistant to handle specialised eye conditions. Since the end of the eye care projects by Sight savers organisation and St. Benedictine eye hospital in Tororo three years ago, no eye surgical camps have been held in the district. This has left several elderly patients in the community with eye diseases not attended to.

Matany Hospital offers specialised outpatient like ophthalmology, dental, surgical, gynaecological, YCC, HCT, MDT-TB, counselling, physiotherapy, orthopaedic, ophthalmic, ART, ANC, PNC and youth clinic.

The HIV/AIDS Clinic runs twice a week (Tuesdays and Fridays). The MDR-TB clinic runs on Thursdays. The rest of the clinics are functional from Monday to Saturday.

In 2022, the HCT clinic had the highest attendance of 8,547 followed by wound dressings in OPD (2,142) surgical clinic (2,044), gynaecological clinic (1,973), ART/HIV clinic (1,790), physiotherapy clinic (1,739) and orthopaedic clinic (1,649) patients.

The Hospital provides a limited number of dental services as seen below. Although Dental Care is one of the components of Primary Health Care, its service demand is still low from the catchment population. The senior human resource in this department is a Dental Assistant, with a certificate in dental care. Patients with major dental conditions are referred to other referral hospitals. 312 were seen in 2022 in the dental clinic which was an increase of 16.4% compared to last year. Pathologies treated include; dental carries, gingivitis, injuries, etc.