Activists decry the inadequate health services in rural areas

President Museveni (in hat), inspects part of the land in Amuru District, which he proposed should be given to Madhvani Group to grow sugarcane, recently. PPU PHOTO

By EPHRAIM KASOZI

Health centre IVs receive about 12 times the number of patients that health centre IIs and IIIs receive, a situation that hinders effective service delivery in rural areas, health activists have said.

Under the Uganda National Health Consumers’ Organisation (UNHCO), the activists said health centre IIs and IIIs have no maternity wards and children wards, forcing patients to abandon them.

“At the health centres, you find children mixed with adults which is dangerous. They also lack essential drugs and the source of water is the rain water harvesting system which is dilapidated,” said Ms Prima Kazoora, an officer with the coalition for Health Promotion and Social Development (HEPS-Uganda).

Ms Kazoora was speaking at the national dissemination of the Quantitative Service Delivery Survey and the Citizens’ Report Card in Kampala yesterday.


Mr Aziz Agaba, the programme officer of UNHCO, said: “There is lack of privacy during consultation, examination and counselling and this abuse of patients’ rights to confidentiality could undermine service utilisation.”

Ms Rosette Mutambi, the executive director of UNHCO, also blamed the government for not involving communities in decision making in health matters.