More health services reach the poor in 2004
Jan 04, 2005
LAST year would have ended on a negative note had health workers gone ahead with their nation-wide sit down strike over poor remuneration.
By Denis Ocwich
LAST year would have ended on a negative note had health workers gone ahead with their nation-wide sit down strike over poor remuneration.
Thanks to President Yoweri Museveni’s timely intervention. After the April 14, 2004, meeting with the Uganda Medical Association and health minister Brig. Jim Muhwezi, Museveni convinced the medics to call off the strike.
True to his word, Museveni directed ministry of public service to spend sh38.6b on health workers’ salaries and allowances. Although not all the claims have been settled to date, health workers are not as aggrieved. With an overall sh340b budget allocation to the Ministry of Health in the June, 2004 budget, the ministry, which has also attracted a lot of donor support, has rolled out a number of projects.
Out of the 868 health centres earmarked for construction countrywide, many of them were finished and equipped by the end of 2004. Health units got 156 new ambulances and the ministry is procuring an additional 37.
“Every constituency, referral and district hospitals will get an ambulance,â€Capt. Mike Mukula, state minister for health in-charge of general duties, said. He added that because of improved health service-delivery, additional 10 million Ugandans accessed free health services by the end of 2004. The Government also built six psychiatric units and 32 bed units in Kabale, Arua, Soroti, Hoima, Fort Portal and Gulu.
“People suffering from mental ailments in the country certainly need more mental health facilities. The number has risen from 20% to 40%,†Dr. Fred Kigozi, director of Butabika Mental Referral Hospital, said.
Among the newly refurbished major health facilities is Butabika. A sh8b infectious diseases institute to train medics in Africa on the management and treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS was opened in October.
The Government launched a national Sero-survey in August to determine the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the country. The sh5.2b survey, to cover 11 districts, is funded by the United States Agency for International Development and is aimed at collecting information on knowledge, attitude, behaviour and practices related to AIDS, which has killed over a million Ugandans and left a similar number infected.
There was a massive roll out of Anti-Retroviral drugs (ARVs) to treat people living with AIDS. With the monthly ARV dosage costing sh29,000 by October 2004, down from sh55,000, more Ugandans have been put on ARVs.
Thanks also to the World Bank, US president’s Emergency Plan to Fight Aids and the Global Fund to Fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria.
“We have increased universal supply of free ARVs to 40,000 people and our target is to hit 60,000 very shortly,†Mukula said.
Besides, the Government intensified “roll-back†malaria and a de-worming programme for over 13 children in a strategy dubbed “Child Daysâ€, which also involved routine immunisation against the six killer diseases.
Perhaps the story of the year was the birth of what is billed as the test tube baby, which was delivered at Mulago Hospital in the first week of October. But officials of Nordica Kampala Fertility and Gynaecology Centre, which ‘engineered’ the test tube reproduction, declined to divulge details of the baby. Elsewhere, an outbreak of rabies in Kotido district left 47 people dead in only one month. “The affected sub-counties were Kacheri, Nyakwai, Karenga and Kotido,†the district veterinary officer, Dr. Pascal Panvuga said.
After an assessment by a team from the World Health Organisation, ministry of health and Kitgum district administration, the districts bordering Sudan were cleared of ebola. Meantime, the Minister of Labour, Gender and Social Development, Zoe Bakoko Bakoru, said sh1.052b was required to compensate its employees and victims of ebola, which struck northern Uganda in 2000.
Statistics obtained from the Uganda Heart Institute indicated that out of 100 patients registered in Mulago Hospital, 10 are diagnosed with heart problems. With 38% of the population living below the poverty line, the heaviest plight is on the young generation.
According to Dr Joseph Kyabagu, the director of Health Services in-charge of planning at the ministry of health, about 38% of children under five years had stunted growth, while 50% had Vitamin A deficiency.
It is higher in northern Uganda, where food shortage has been caused by the 18-year-old insurgency.
“We have eliminated guinea worm and polio,†Mukula said. Between 1999 and 2003, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation donated about sh8b for increasing immunisation coverage. For this, Museveni and Muhwezi were awarded for their outstanding performances.
Ends
LAST year would have ended on a negative note had health workers gone ahead with their nation-wide sit down strike over poor remuneration.
Thanks to President Yoweri Museveni’s timely intervention. After the April 14, 2004, meeting with the Uganda Medical Association and health minister Brig. Jim Muhwezi, Museveni convinced the medics to call off the strike.
True to his word, Museveni directed ministry of public service to spend sh38.6b on health workers’ salaries and allowances. Although not all the claims have been settled to date, health workers are not as aggrieved. With an overall sh340b budget allocation to the Ministry of Health in the June, 2004 budget, the ministry, which has also attracted a lot of donor support, has rolled out a number of projects.
Out of the 868 health centres earmarked for construction countrywide, many of them were finished and equipped by the end of 2004. Health units got 156 new ambulances and the ministry is procuring an additional 37.
“Every constituency, referral and district hospitals will get an ambulance,â€Capt. Mike Mukula, state minister for health in-charge of general duties, said. He added that because of improved health service-delivery, additional 10 million Ugandans accessed free health services by the end of 2004. The Government also built six psychiatric units and 32 bed units in Kabale, Arua, Soroti, Hoima, Fort Portal and Gulu.
“People suffering from mental ailments in the country certainly need more mental health facilities. The number has risen from 20% to 40%,†Dr. Fred Kigozi, director of Butabika Mental Referral Hospital, said.
Among the newly refurbished major health facilities is Butabika. A sh8b infectious diseases institute to train medics in Africa on the management and treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS was opened in October.
The Government launched a national Sero-survey in August to determine the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the country. The sh5.2b survey, to cover 11 districts, is funded by the United States Agency for International Development and is aimed at collecting information on knowledge, attitude, behaviour and practices related to AIDS, which has killed over a million Ugandans and left a similar number infected.
There was a massive roll out of Anti-Retroviral drugs (ARVs) to treat people living with AIDS. With the monthly ARV dosage costing sh29,000 by October 2004, down from sh55,000, more Ugandans have been put on ARVs.
Thanks also to the World Bank, US president’s Emergency Plan to Fight Aids and the Global Fund to Fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria.
“We have increased universal supply of free ARVs to 40,000 people and our target is to hit 60,000 very shortly,†Mukula said.
Besides, the Government intensified “roll-back†malaria and a de-worming programme for over 13 children in a strategy dubbed “Child Daysâ€, which also involved routine immunisation against the six killer diseases.
Perhaps the story of the year was the birth of what is billed as the test tube baby, which was delivered at Mulago Hospital in the first week of October. But officials of Nordica Kampala Fertility and Gynaecology Centre, which ‘engineered’ the test tube reproduction, declined to divulge details of the baby. Elsewhere, an outbreak of rabies in Kotido district left 47 people dead in only one month. “The affected sub-counties were Kacheri, Nyakwai, Karenga and Kotido,†the district veterinary officer, Dr. Pascal Panvuga said.
After an assessment by a team from the World Health Organisation, ministry of health and Kitgum district administration, the districts bordering Sudan were cleared of ebola. Meantime, the Minister of Labour, Gender and Social Development, Zoe Bakoko Bakoru, said sh1.052b was required to compensate its employees and victims of ebola, which struck northern Uganda in 2000.
Statistics obtained from the Uganda Heart Institute indicated that out of 100 patients registered in Mulago Hospital, 10 are diagnosed with heart problems. With 38% of the population living below the poverty line, the heaviest plight is on the young generation.
According to Dr Joseph Kyabagu, the director of Health Services in-charge of planning at the ministry of health, about 38% of children under five years had stunted growth, while 50% had Vitamin A deficiency.
It is higher in northern Uganda, where food shortage has been caused by the 18-year-old insurgency.
“We have eliminated guinea worm and polio,†Mukula said. Between 1999 and 2003, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation donated about sh8b for increasing immunisation coverage. For this, Museveni and Muhwezi were awarded for their outstanding performances.
Ends