By Diana Atwiine
P.S MINSTRY OF HEALTH
“Health is wealth” and therefore the healthier the citizens of a country, the more effective the workforce hence development of the country.
Health is one area the NRM government cannot mess up with.
To realize this, just like they have been doing since 1986, a closer scrutiny into NRM’s re-election manifesto for the period 2016-2021 indicates that they are still on track as far as guaranteeing health for all Ugandans.
And to address the plight of people who make sure citizens remain healthy, the government has offered 721 scholarships to health workers to train in the various fields. The government has also trained 30 super specialists at Uganda Heart Institute.
Under NRM’s reelection manifesto for the period under review, the government was also able to deliver on a number of promises which can make officials at the health ministry walk with swagger into the next term 2021-2026.
Under the steady guidance of workaholic Ministers Dr. Ruth Aceng, Robinah Nabbanja, Dr.Joyce Akello, Uganda’s life expectancy improved from 58 years in 2014 to 63 years, to date. There was a reduction in: maternal mortality from 438/100,000 in 2011 to 336/100,000 live births; infant mortality by 20% from 54/1000 in 2011 to 43/1,000 live births in 2016; under five mortalities by 29% from 90/1,000 in 2011 to 64/1,000 live births in 2016; and the prevalence of stunting from 48% to 29%, while wasting (acute malnutrition or low weight for height) decreased from 7% to 4% between 2008 and 2016.
More so, there was an increase in the number of expectant mothers helped by skilled health workers to deliver from 58% in 2011 to over 74% currently.
To the credit of MoH bosses, the 2016-2021 Kisanja also saw an improvement in: access by the population to health facilities within 5km of reach, stands at 86%; health infrastructure and technology for both diagnosis and treatment of TB, with 224 GeneXpert machines operational country wide to strengthen diagnosis and treatment of TB and as well staffing level in the health sector from 70% in 2015 to 76% in 2019.
To counter pandemics, the government was able to scale up early detection and control of disease outbreaks through surveillance of killer diseases such as Ebola, Marburg fever and of recent the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, state-of-the-art laboratories were established at the National Public Health Laboratory in Butabika and at the Uganda Virus Research Institute, Entebbe. It was during this period under review that Covid-19 pandemic ravaged the world and Uganda was also equally affected. But the government devised quick interventions which saw among others the installment of two thermo scanners at Entebbe Airport and one at Mpondwe border post for scanning of travellers and acquired a mobile laboratory stationed at Malaba border to test travellers for the novel coronavirus. A viral Haemorrhagic Fever isolation centre was also established at Mulago National Referral Hospital and rehabilitated the isolation centre at Entebbe Hospital. Under National Medical Stores, the government was also able to increase the availability of essential medicines to 84%.