Western region tops in lifesaving drugs - report

By John Agaba

A new report on the availability of maternal/reproductive health lifesaving drugs shows that the western region has the highest and best coverage of the essential medicines in the country.

Kampala has the lowest coverage at 32.9%.

The report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the health ministry shows that rural areas have improved and have coverage of 65.4% of seven (including 2 essential) lifesaving maternal and reproductive health medicines. Urban areas have coverage of 54.4%.

Overall, the availability of lifesaving drugs for maternal and reproductive health in health facilities in Uganda stands at 62%.

The report points to the low availability of essential medicines especially in the lower health centre II’s and III’s because of “procurement and storage constraints” mainly.

Dr. Placid Mihayo, from the health ministry, presenting the report findings at the Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala Thursday, said the challenge (of lack of essential medicines) which was compounded by a high patient ratio (seeking care) was debilitating maternal and child health.

“Some facilities still lack the essential emergency medicine to use in case of a bleeding mother. These are areas we have to improve,” he said.

The report shows there is hardly any maintenance of the cold chain (low temperature) required for transportation and storage of medicines, from the time of delivery to administration, with 73% of the facilities surveyed admitting to this challenge.

It points to the unavailability of ‘maama’ kits especially in health centre II’s; delays in supply — from when the health facilities put in a requisition to when they get the supplies.

The survey was conducted among 734 health facilities countrywide, 258 in urban areas, 476 in rural areas.
 

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A view of Kitagata Hospital in Sheema district, western Uganda

Essential drugs like, ampicillin, azithromycin and cefixime, were some of the 17 lifesaving maternal and reproductive health commodities sampled. This was in December 2014.

Prof. Anthony Mbonye, the director of health services (clinical and community) at the health ministry, said: “We have made gains in reproductive health. We have reduced the numbers of mothers and children who die in pregnancy-related complications. But we need to penetrate and deliver these medicines to every health facility.”

Statistics indicate that about 16 women still die in pregnancy-related complications in Uganda every day. About 90 children per 1, 000 live births die before the age of five.

However, if “we can avail emergency contraceptives, condoms, and family planning, and give every woman a choice (of whether to conceive or not) we can reduce these numbers,” Dr. Mugisha Muhwera said.

The report said the government and partners should ensure that all the health facilities in the country have 100% of all the essential lifesaving drugs. It recommended a business process re-engineering of the supply chain so medicines are delivered on time.