Govt should provide emergency healthcare

A patient in the theatre. The Health ministry needs to evaluate how well-equipped these hospitals are in terms of space to accommodate many people at a go. FILE PHOTO 

In Summary

• The issue: Emergency care
• Our view: The government should look at how to provide healthcare, especially on roads that are notorious for accidents such as Jinja and Masaka highways.

By EDITOR

Over the Easter holiday, the Nation Media Group run an investigative piece on NTV and in Daily
Monitor, of how equipped the government is to handle health emergencies. As a country grappling with numerous road accidents each year, sudden outbreaks of diseases like Ebola, cholera and measles, and a host of other health problems, we should by now know the desperate need to provide immediate health services to the people.

Indeed there have been strides made. The last few outbreaks of, for instance Ebola and Marburg, have been dealt with rapidly and rather efficiently. As soon as the individuals suspected to be carrying the virus were identified, they were picked up and put in isolation units to prevent the spread of the disease and health workers were immediately deployed to take care of them as well as determine what exactly the disease was and how far it had gone. Such efficient emergency responses have been applauded throughout the continent and Uganda should be proud of them.

However, more people have lost their lives in to road accidents rather than to Ebola or Marburg in the last five years. An article published in this paper in February, had the headline, ‘Boda bodas kill 7,000 in three years’. While many of the victims may die on the spot, some of these people die because it is difficult to access emergency healthcare.
This is why the government should look at how to provide healthcare, especially on roads that are notorious for accidents such as Jinja and Masaka highways. Many of the people who get accidents along these roads are taken to Nkozi Hospital, Masaka Regional Referral Hospital and Kawolo Hospital.

The Health ministry needs to evaluate how well-equipped these hospitals are in terms of space to accommodate many people at a go, human resource in terms of skill and numbers, and the equipment needed. Blood shortage has also been blamed for the loss of many lives. The ministry should, therefore, do an audit on all these places and work on equipping them better because they are the first places to receive the victims.

The ministry should also look at pilot projects such as the motorbike ambulances – made of scrap metal and a motorcycle – which help transport people in rural areas to the nearest health centre, and see if it is worth using such initiatives widely. For the hospitals that are better equipped, but perhaps not well-known to the public, the ministry should find a way of publicising them.

Getting first-class ambulances and the skill that comes with operating them might be difficult in the near future, but there are small and effective initiatives the ministry can work on.