Access to health care
Challenges in access to healthcare in Uganda rage on. With more than 76% of our total population living in rural areas whose resources continue to reduce, there must be interventions to hold ground to keep health centers functioning and supporting people that desperately need them. 71.73% of the Ugandan population is within a one-hour walk to their nearest government health facility[1]. Ambulance services continue to remain a mystery to many in both rural and urban settings in Uganda. More than 96% of government health care facilities require a patient to be able to facilitate some of their medical supplies as may be needed by the attending provider[2].
There is yet to be a public health insurance scheme for ordinary Ugandans and as of now, out of pocket payments for healthcare[3] overall are required both at public and private hospitals for consistent and professional care.
The biggest challenge
A small section of private facilities in Uganda stock medicines to treat patients but majority of our targeted population seeks services at public facilities that never stock medicines to treat illnesses[4]. This is also followed by the lack of human resource and systems to promote quality improvement at healthcare facilities providing treatment for people in rural areas[5].
With the increasing burden of non-communicable diseases over the past 10 years[6], our services have continued to remain relevant for communities we work with in Rural and semi-urban Uganda. With Multiple challenges in access already known to us[7] [8] and the biggest challenges associated with medical human resources[9] [10], we try hard enough to ensure services and supplies are available in communities we work with across the country.
- [1] Exploring country-wide equitable government health care facility access in Uganda: Nicholas Dowhaniuk, International Journal for Equity in Health: 2021
- [2] Out-of-pocket payment for surgery in Uganda: The rate of impoverishing and catastrophic expenditure at a government hospital: NIH 2017
- [3] Causes and Impact of out-of-pocket payments on the health of the people in Uganda: literature review: Nalwanga Belindah 2021
- [4] Disparities in availability of essential medicines to treat non-communicable diseases in Uganda: A Poisson analysis using the Service Availability and Readiness Assessment: Yale University 2018
- [5] Accessing medicines for non-communicable diseases: Patients and health care workers’ experiences at public and private health facilities in Uganda: PLoS One 2020
- [6] Looking at non-communicable diseases in Uganda through a local lens: an analysis using locally derived data: Globalisation & Health 2014
- [7] Ugandan hospitals hit by shortages of drugs, other supplies: Reuters 2018
- [8] Uganda’s healthcare system explained: The Guardian 2009
- [9] Losing hope amid Uganda doctors’ strike: BBC 2017
- [10] Patients suffer as medical activities suspended in all government hospitals in East African country: AA 2021
