By Muhereza Kyamutetera
Last week, it was reported that for the entire 365 days of 2019 there was ZERO maternity deaths recorded at the government owned Kawolo General Hospital in Lugazi.
Yes. ZERO deaths! As in no mother died during the act of giving a life!!
Kudos to the medical teams at Kawolo- you are the real heroes and heroines.
But did you also know that Kawolo Hospital was recently renovated and re-equipped at a cost of USD10.8m?
Among many enhancements, a new operating theatre with 3 suites and a new maternity centre, including antenatal department were built. The outpatients unit was also expanded and a new emergency department with an Intensive Care Unit-ICU and CT scan amongst other equipment acquired.
Did you know that other than Kawolo, Gov’t across the country, recently built 10 theatres and 16 Maternity Wards and built 40,000 litre reservoir tanks for 26 Health Centre IVs?
Did you also know that gov’t also delivered beds for both normal and disabled mothers to 65 hospitals and 167 HC IVs? Did you also know that the number of HC IVs offering Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric Care (i.e. Caesarean section and blood transfusion) increased from 83 out of 186 (44.6%) in 2016/17 to 87 out of 186 (48%) in 2017/18?
Did you know that as a result of the improved facilities, the number of women who do at least 4 antenatal visits before birth increased to 38% in FY2017/18 from 30%in 2010/11? Did you know that health facility deliveries increasing to 60% FY2017/18 from 58% in 2016/17?
Did you also know that because of these initiatives and others like the 2018 construction and equipping of the 450 Bed Specialised Women & Neonatal hospital at Mulago at a cost of USD 25 million, there has been reduced maternal mortalities from 438 per 100,000 live births in 2012/13 to 336 deaths in 2018/19?
Of course I know that there is a lot of work that needs to be done and more mothers to be saved, but every mother saved; every new-born saved is a reason to celebrate. It is a day to celebrate our brothers and sisters in government, private sector and non-government who wake up every day to save lives.
The writer is a journalist and one of Uganda’s finest communications experts, with over 15 years’ experience.
