| dc.description.abstract | This study examined the effectiveness of public infrastructure management in national referral
hospitals with Kawempe National Referral Hospital as the case study. The study was guided
by three objectives – i) examining the functional condition (functionality) of public
infrastructure, ii) the factors affecting the effective management of public infrastructure, and
iii) possible solutions to factors affecting the effective management of public infrastructure.
The study used cross-sectional survey design and considered both qualitative and quantitative
approaches. The study targeted 194 participants as a sample size but 140 respondents managed
to respond back (72.2%). Data were collected using questionnaires and interview guides to
managers, administrators and hospital users. The study revealed that despite the hospital
buildings being well-built, well completed and the roof being well fixed, the functionality
condition of the hospital was lacking, which is common to poorly managed public buildings.
Some windows and doors were not well fixed, flush toilets were not in good condition, some
walls and the floor were bowing and had cracks, there were broken and blocked sewage lines
and some buildings had faded painting. Infrastructure management was affected by lack of
adequate funds, poor infrastructure maintenance culture characterized by poor road
supervision & inspection and lack of rehabilitation prioritization. Furthermore, there was
indiscipline and ignorance of building users and lack of maintenance and repair policy
guidelines in the hospital. To overcome such challenges, the study revealed that, there was
need for increased funding, reparation of operation and maintenance plans, prioritizing
maintenance and repair of buildings, fighting corruption, regular supervision and inspection,
increasing political support, regular technical infrastructural assessments, sensitizing hospital
users on proper ways of building, sourcing for skilled manpower and entering into Public
private partnership to raise more funds. It was recommended that the central government's
funding for hospitals has to be increased, implement robust internal controls to safeguard
against and catch any fraud or misappropriation of funds in hospitals in light of the rising
instances of official corruption, embezzlement, and theft of public funds. Furthermore, public
entities need participate into public-private partnerships to help them raise more revenue and
also help to develop maintenance & management plans and frameworks to guide and remind
the hospital workers when to do repairs and rehabilitations of the buildings | en_US |
