History

The Dr Ambrosoli Memorial Hospital is a private, non-profit, community hospital owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Gulu, and is accredited by the Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau. It is administered by the Little Sisters of Mary Immaculate of Gulu (LSMIG).

The hospital was started in a thatched grass house by Sister Eletta Mantiero, a Comboni Missionary Sister, as a dispensary in 1934. It soon started delivering babies and attending to medical and pediatric patients.

In 1957, Dr. Fr. Giuseppe Ambrosoli, an Italian physician, surgeon and catholic priest, began the transformation of the dispensary into a full-fledged hospital. At that time the dispensary was treating many leprosy patients. Dr. Ambrosoli revolutionalised the care for leprosy patients, by admitting them to the same hospital as other patients, instead of confining them to a leprosarium. At that time, leprosaria were generally badly managed and led to patient neglect, especially in Tropical Africa.

Today, the hospital is a 350-bed facility, that admits patients in the disciplines of Internal Medicine, General Surgery, Pediatrics and Obstetrics/Gynecology.

The hospital has been renamed Dr. Ambrosoli Memorial Hospital, after its founder. As of October 2020, it averages 26,012 annual outpatients visits, with 11,796 annual inpatient admissions. Annual maternal deliveries average 2,665, with a caesarian rate of 15.3 percent. The hospital operates on income derived from patient fees, donations and annual government subsidies. However, no patient is turned away because of inability to pay. On average, patient fees account for approximately 9.8 percent of total hospital annual income and the Government subsidy accounts for about 18.4 percent of annual hospital income.

In 1959 Dr. Fr. Giuseppe Ambrosolio established  St. Mary's School of Midwifery, with a view of someday in the future handing over the care of the patients to local Ugandan staff.