GOVERNMENT plans to transform Muhima Maternity Hospital into a center of excellence to offer quality services and facilitate training of nurses, the Minister of Health, Dr. Agnes Binagwaho has said.   She announced this on Friday during her visit to the hospital, to identify areas where it needs support in terms of infrastructure, equipment and skills. "This hospital has the capacity, but we just need to transform it further so that it can be able to handle more cases of maternal and child birth; as this will significantly reduce risks or do away with cases of diseases linked to pregnancy and delivery,” said Binagwaho.   The four-month rehabilitation work is set to start in January next year.  The minister, together with engineers meant to oversee the hospital’s rehabilitation work, toured the health facility before holding a meeting with the staff in which they discussed performance and capacity building measures.Currently, Muhima hospital has capacity to handle 184 patients at the same time with at least sixteen specialists and over 100 nurses.   Dr. Patrick Mulindwa, the hospital director, said the initiative would not only create more room for health workers to operate, but also increase access to health services.     "In addition to rehabilitation, there is also need to fully equip and expand our laboratory, as this will enable us to build on the examination capacity to diagnose disease infection among pregnant mothers,” said Mulindwa.