Quality of healthcare has improved – govt
What you need to know:
A copy of the Annual Health Sector Performance report for 2020/2021 that this newspaper has seen shows a drop in death per one thousand newborn babies from 27 in 2019 to 20 in 2020
The Ministry of Health has said its sector performance report indicates a remarkable improvement in the quality of healthcare.
Dr Henry Mwebesa, the Director-General of Health Services, said quick steps taken to address the service delivery disruptions due to the Covid-19 pandemic underpin the “remarkable” improvement.
“The sector performance was better in 2020/2021 Financial Year compared to the previous one [2019/2020]. We achieved targets for 12 indicators [performance areas], and made progress in six other indicators out of 31 indicators,” he said yesterday.
A copy of the Annual Health Sector Performance report for 2020/2021 that this newspaper has seen shows a drop in death per one thousand newborn babies from 27 in 2019 to 20 in 2020.
Others included increasing the number of doctors per 100,000 population from one to 10, cutting TB incidence per 100,000 population from 234 to 192, and reducing the rates of road accidents per 100,000 population from 2,348 to 647 between 2019 and 2020.
However, in the report, the total number of deaths in hospitals increased from 45,042 in 2019 to 45,990 in 2020. Dr Mwebesa said the rise in patient deaths could be due to an “increase in population.”
But the report indicates that hospital admissions in the Financial Year 2020/2021 reduced by “22 per cent from 2,069,310 in Financial Year 2019/2020 to 1,609,638.”
The number of patients dying in hospitals has been on the rise. The 2018/2019 sector report showed that a total of 34,491 deaths were recorded.
Leading killer
The leading cause of death, according to the report was malaria (10.9 percent), pneumonia (6.4 percent), other newborn conditions (5.3 percent) and anaemia (4.5 percent).
Malaria incidence per 1,000 population increased from 293 to 302. “Increased rainfall and flooding contributed to an increase in malaria cases,” the report indicates.
The incidence rates of non-communicable diseases such as hypertension also increased from 3.2 percent to 3.5 percent, with women more affected than men.
The sector performance report for 2020/2021 was released yesterday in Kampala at the 27th Health Sector Joint Review Mission meeting which has attracted the private sector and development partners (civil society organisations).
Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, the Health minister, said: “I am happy to note that despite Covid-19, the sector has made remarkable progress...”
“Where there is slow or no progress, we must undertake critical analysis to identify the bottlenecks and priority interventions to get back on track,” she said while launching the review meeting that will end today.
Ms Grace Kiwanuka, the executive director of Uganda Healthcare Federation, the umbrella body for private players in healthcare, said government should work closely with them to address gaps in healthcare.