Phillip Mwebaza
Similar to the anthrax outbreaks, the coronavirus pandemic, and most recently, the Ebola epidemic in Uganda, partnerships have been essential in preventing these circumstances from adversely influencing the health of other Ugandans through health promotion.
Efforts to promote health through advocacy and innovation in Uganda have helped to reduce the negative impact of the Coronavirus.
Dr. Louis Kamulegeya, the Projects and Research Manager at Rocket Health Uganda, emphasizes the need of the new healthcare and health promotion systems as the fundamental necessity that transcends racial or regional borders.
Kamulegeya is a specialist in enhancing the health of people in Africa via the use of digital health practices.
“We are all affected by the new diseases, which are not specific to any one region, race, state, or area. Look at Coronavirus; it was a force to be reckoned with before we joined forces. Therefore, collaboration is the best option to guarantee life extension and good health “Dr. Kamulegeya narrates.
It should be emphasized, according to Kamulegeya, that Uganda’s struggles with universal healthcare coverage stem and stop with sector funding.
Partnerships, according to Dr. Kamulegeya, are a very beneficial element in disease prevention, not just disease containment or aversion, because by paying attention and sharing resources and research material, the world can find a cure to the various disease burdens sooner through health education, promotion, and innovation. Despite the fact that financing is sometimes a constraint.
“In order to attract funds into the health sector, funders must meet with key players such as the Ministry of Health to establish priorities, as the ministry always has a long-term strategic plan.” As a result, it is critical to connect financing sources with the strategic strategy in order to achieve the desired goals and attain quality healthcare through health promotion,” Dr. Kamulegeya explains.
However, partnerships function best when there are systems in place, so let us first look at the structure of Uganda’s health sector.
The Uganda’s Health Structure Explained;
According to Dr. Martin Sendyona, Senior Medical Officer of Quality Assurance at the Ministry of Health, patients are now swarming the upper-level Health Center IVs at the district level and regional referral hospitals, which are dispersed across various regions, as a result of the decentralized health structure’s ongoing shortfalls in some areas.
We need to boost human resources and make more staff available at the institutions, he said, citing congestion at general hospitals in the districts and regional referrals.
Dr. Louis Kamulegeya claims that despite the commitment providing medical staff with training to increase their understanding of various healthcare afflictions, resource shortages continue to be a barrier to obtaining universal health care in Uganda.
According to a 2021 UNICEF research, the country’s average level of universal health coverage is 59%. This indicates that 41% of the population is at danger since there are no medical facilities nearby.
Currently, the government is working to increase the provision of universal health coverage services in lower-level medical facilities, particularly Health Center IIIs and Health Center IVs.
The government is collaborating with private players to ensure that there is at least one health center within a five-kilometer radius, as required by the National Health Sector Strategic Plan, despite the fact that the few existing community health facilities are understaffed and underfunded due to resource limitations.
Health Education in the community
According to the World Bank, more than 75% of Uganda’s population is under 30. These people suffer from a lack of health knowledge that may assist them in making wise health-related decisions and aid in disease prevention.
In a study done by Oxford University between 2006 and 2015 in 14 Sub-Saharan African nations, the prevalence of high health literacy was found to be 35.77% overall, 34.08% for females, and 39.17% for men.
In terms of health literacy, or what many people call education, Dr. Louis Kamulegeya claims that if health professionals break down distinct health messages for community members, they would be able to grasp and discuss health concerns while using the available knowledge.
In an effort to promote health education, Dr. Kabanda Ricard, Acting Commissioner Health Services in charge of Health Promotion, Education, and Health Communication, has explored Community audio towers as an information sharing resource that public health professionals can use to improve health communication in remote and pre-urban setups.
“Community audio towers can be an important center of health education, but only if health education content that will be used on these channels of communication for usage is available.” Dr. Kabanda provides an example.
If you’re wondering what Community Audio Towers are, they’re community-based communication channels made up of strong fixed speakers placed on bamboo or steel poles that can convey information within a 5 kilometer radius of the communities where they’re located.
“Community Audio Towers may be referred to as the major transmitters of information since they are considered area-local FM stations because they broadcast contextually relevant information to communities,” says Dr. Kabanda.
As a result, they are perfect for health education in rural areas where access to other media is limited due to cost, literacy, and a lack of awareness of the local context.
Partnerships that go beyond response
Before being implemented in the places where they are needed, opportunities for capacity development, such as assembling those with resources and those in need, must be developed with mechanisms that are acceptable to all sides.
Local communities must be included in the creation of health systems and partnerships because they have an influence on their surroundings. The objective of universal health care delivery may be realized by keeping the community in mind.