Government hails Israel on health services

KIBOGA. Uganda has hailed the Israeli government for supporting health services delivery in the country.
The Health minister, Dr Jane Aceng, said this at the commissioning of a diabetes clinic at Kiboga Hospital, which was established with support from Israel.
Dr Aceng said the existing partnership between the two countries is part of a wider intervention where Israel is also undertaking a bigger project at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Mulago National Referral Hospital under the Israeli capacity building project.

“The collaboration between Israel and Uganda is not limited to medical supplies but has been extended to capacity building, including the ongoing works at the Intensive Care Unit for Mulago National Referral Hospital. The Israeli medical volunteers have been with us for a long time and we appreciate the support for the health care system,” Dr Aceng said on Friday.

The clinic has been built with the help of construction company SBI Uganda in partnership with the Israeli Embassy in Uganda.
Diabetes, a non-communicable disease that is now not only limited to the elderly according to Dr Aceng, calls for vigilance in embracing the preventive measures, including regular physical exercises
“We also need to embrace early screening for diabetes to ascertain the blood sugar level. Available statistics show that 75 per cent of the disease burden in Uganda is preventable,” Dr Aceng said.

Scale up health services
Israeli Ambassador to Uganda Noah Gal said his government will scale up services, including the ongoing commitment on works at the Mulago National Referral Hospital new ICU as part of the cooperation aimed at boosting health delivery in Uganda.
“We also hope to scale up medicines supplies. Our medical volunteer teams are committed and are available to boost health service delivery. It is unfortunate that diabetes is not only in Uganda but a global challenge, which has no borders,” he said.

Diabetes cases
Dr Peter Isagara, the Kiboga Hospital medical superintendent, said the hospital currently receives about 350 diabetic patients out of which 300 are attended to by the outreach teams at the different health units where the services have been extended in the district.
“We used to register at least one death in every two to three months for diabetic conditions. We are now proud to announce since January when SBI opened up the diabetic services at Kiboga Hospital, we have not registered any deaths resulting from diabetics,” Dr Isagara said.

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