Rukungiri · Uganda
About

From an abandoned flax factory to a regional lifeline.

Kisiizi’s roots trace to the East Africa Revival of the 1920s and a waterfall-powered factory built by Italian prisoners of war. When the factory closed after the Second World War, the Church of Uganda saw its chance to bring practical care — and, in 1958, a hospital was born.

Aerial view of the Kisiizi Hospital compound
Aerial view of the Kisiizi Hospital compound and surrounding hills

Aerial views of the Kisiizi Hospital compound, set into the surrounding hills

28 March 1958

Dr John & Doreen Sharp arrive

They camp in one of the old factory buildings. By the first Monday morning, thirty people are already queuing to be seen.

1959 – 1960

The factory becomes a hospital

An operating theatre, labour ward, sterilising rooms and stores are carved out of the old buildings. By March 1960, two wards with 24 beds are open for in-patients.

1966

Loss, and continuity

Dr Sharp dies of a brain tumour; his successor, Dr Pat Walker, is killed in a car accident soon after. Neither loss — nor the political turmoil of the Amin and Obote years that follows — closes the hospital’s doors.

1989 – 1998

Schools, sponsorship, nursing

The Primary School opens in 1989. Facing a growing AIDS crisis, Kisiizi launches child sponsorship in 1995 and founds its own School of Nursing & Midwifery in 1998.

2008

Golden Jubilee

Fifty years on, Kisiizi marks its Golden Jubilee with the Archbishop of Uganda in attendance — alongside a former patient who by then was the country’s President. The partnership with Countess of Chester Hospital begins the same year.

2026

Approaching seventy years

Kisiizi looks toward its 70th anniversary in 2028, still guided by the same conviction that brought Dr Sharp here: that care should never be turned away.

Staff, students and colleagues celebrating Kisiizi Hospital's 65th anniversary in 2023, outside the hospital's original building

Staff, students and colleagues mark 65 years of Kisiizi Hospital, 2023.

Medical superintendents, 1958–present

Names with a – open to a short history. The rest are here as record only — if you served at Kisiizi during those years, or knew someone who did, the hospital would welcome hearing from you.

Dr John Sharp1958–1966+
Arrived with his wife Doreen on 28 March 1958 to camp in one of the old flax-factory buildings that became this hospital — a queue of thirty was already waiting to be seen by the following Monday. Son of the missionary doctor Leonard Sharp, who had founded Kabale Hospital and the Lake Bunyonyi leper colony a generation earlier. Led Kisiizi until a brain tumour ended his life in 1966.
Dr Pat Walker1966+
Took over after Dr Sharp’s death and was killed in a car accident not long after — a second devastating loss in quick succession for the young hospital.
Dr Jack Symonds1966–1967
Dr John Davies1967–1977
Dr Kevin Vaughan1977–1986
Dr Amos Twinamasiko1986–1988
Dr Edward Turitwenka1988–1989
Dr Ian Spillman1989–1993+
A consultant paediatrician who first worked at Kisiizi from 1987 with his wife Hanna, a nurse and midwife. On leaving in 1993, the couple spent nineteen years in the UK coordinating Friends of Kisiizi and visiting regularly.
Dr Peter Wood1993–1996
Dr Lionel Mills1996–2000
Dr Peter Winfrey2000–2003
Dr Tonny Tumwesigye2003–2012+
Went on to become Executive Director of the Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau, representing Uganda’s church-run hospitals nationally and internationally.
Dr Ian Spillman2012–2022+
Asked to take up the Medical Superintendent role again in 2012, he and Hanna returned to live at Kisiizi for another decade of service.
Dr Henry Lukabwe2022–present+
Grew up in Mukono, central Uganda, and trained in medicine at Mbarara University of Science and Technology. Did part of his internship at Kisiizi before completing it at Mulago National Referral Hospital, then returned in 2013 as a Medical Officer. Kisiizi went on to sponsor his postgraduate degree in Obstetrics & Gynaecology, completed in 2018, after which he joined the hospital’s management committee. He is married to Ruth, with two children, Hadriel and Henrietta.

Research, film & publications

Work from Kisiizi has found its way into medical journals, World Health Organization reports and national television. A selection is gathered here — some of it decades old, all of it part of how this place came to be what it is.

Research & reports11 items+
Universal Health Coverage and Patient Safety & Quality World Health Organization · 2014 · PDF Kisiizi was one of only five institutions worldwide invited into the WHO Learning Laboratory that produced this report. Amplification of patient safety and infection prevention systems in southwest Uganda Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control · 2013 · PDF On the power of district-based in-hospital training. Winner of the Implementation Academy Award at the International Conference on Prevention & Infection Control, Geneva, June 2013. The use of facilities for labour and delivery: the views of women in rural Uganda Journal of Public Health in Africa · September 2017 · PDF A Kisiizi study asking women in the surrounding communities what shapes their decision about where to give birth. Letter to The Lancet on faith-based healthcare The Lancet · January 2016 · External Written by the Medical Superintendent in response to the journal’s series on faith-based health care. Volunteering in a mental health service in Uganda: challenges and rewards BJPsych International · 2019 · PDF Dr Fiona Martin’s reflections after six months as a visiting registrar in psychiatry at Kisiizi. Development of the Kisiizi Hospital health insurance scheme Published June 2018 · PDF How the oldest community health insurance scheme in Uganda was built. The Kisiizi Hospital health insurance scheme Published August 2018 · PDF A companion article on how the scheme works in practice and what it covers. The effect of community-based health insurance on child and preventive health PhD thesis · 2018 · PDF Doctoral research built on data from the Kisiizi community health insurance scheme. Piloting an electronic medical record system in a rural Ugandan hospital JMIR Formative Research · 2018 · External Findings from the pilot of the Streamline records system in Kisiizi’s outpatient department. Lessons from implementing an electronic medical record system at Kisiizi Springer · 2019 · External A follow-up chapter drawing on what the Streamline pilot taught the team. Medical student elective report University of Western Australia · January 2014 · PDF A first-hand account of an elective placement at Kisiizi, useful reading if you are considering one yourself.
Kisiizi on film4 clips+
Kisiizi: an overview YouTube · Presentation A tour through the hospital’s work in slides, with a greeting from Moses Mugume. Kisiizi Hospital innovations for patient safety Uganda–UK Health Alliance · Webinar How patient safety and quality systems were developed at Kisiizi and shared onward. Kisiizi Hospital Mothers’ Waiting Home Uganda Broadcasting Corporation · 2019 · Documentary A television report on the waiting home that allows mothers to arrive safely ahead of labour. Free fistula treatment at Kisiizi Uganda Broadcasting Corporation · 2019 · Documentary Coverage of the free obstetric fistula repair offered at the hospital.
In the press4 items+
Contact magazine World Council of Churches · December 2013 · PDF Kisiizi featured in an edition distributed in English and French to 39 countries. Amplifying the APPS Programme: the cascade effect WHO Africa Partnerships for Patient Safety · Autumn 2013 · PDF The newsletter’s headline article, written by Alia Fry, a Peace Corps volunteer at Kisiizi. Transformation: addressing the underlying causes of disease and illness Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau · November 2015 · PDF On treating the conditions that bring people to hospital in the first place. Royal College of Paediatrics & Child Health newsletter Spring 2013 · PDF Kisiizi’s paediatric work reported to the College’s membership.