Govt sends 168 local health workers to ease disease burden in Busoga

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Dr Diana Atwine, inspects Mayuge Health Centre IV in October 2022. The government is counting on a Shs2b project to ease the disease burden in the District after training 168 community health workers (CHEWs). PHOTO/PHILIP WAFULA

At least 168 community health workers (CHEWs) in Mayuge District have been sent to 84 parishes to work under the supervision of village health teams (VHTS)  to ease the disease burden in Busoga Sub-region.

According to Dr Richard Kabanda, the commissioner of health services in-charge of health promotion, education and communication, the initiative is part of the $500,000 (around Shs2b) pilot project under which 300 CHEWs, including 132 in Lira District, were trained.

This follows an evaluation of VHTs by the Ministry of Health in 2015, which unearthed several health gaps.

The intervention, therefore, seeks to provide better trained personnel to educate the community about health issues and promote disease prevention strategies.

Dr Kabanda added that Mayuge was selected because it has partners who were already doing a lot of community health work.

“As a department, we were instructed to pilot the strategy and the Ministry (of Health) and USAID availed the resources to pilot the strategy through its Regional Health Integration to Enhance Services (RHITES) activities,” he said.

Key indicators

According to Dr Kabanda, the baseline survey was on key indicators such as antenatal care visits in health facilities, maternal and child mortality, pit-latrine coverage. He added that the Ministry of Health would conduct surveys to monitor the progress.

“We expect better educated communities on health issues, reduced maternal child mortality, empowered communities, reduced attendance to health facilities on preventable diseases and increased attendance to antenatal care clinics,” Dr Kabanda said.

He added that the CHEWs will supervise the VHTs and will ensure that communities are well educated on health issues, early referrals and timely linkage to the health system.

Dr Kabanda said each CHEW will earn a monthly salary of Shs150,000 from the government after which their respective districts will take over the payment.

Dr Diana Atwine, the Health ministry  Permanent Secretary, said the project will revolutionalise healthcare.

“We want to see a drop in malaria cases, increased use of mosquito nets, and routine examination of vaccination cards and documents. If we implement it well, it will be a springboard in implementation of our strategy within the communities. Majority of diseases can be defeated if we focus on prevention at household level,” she said.