Health Management Committees recommended for their roles in improving health services

Political leaders can be barriers or accelerators of existing health policies in any country depending on the way they disseminate information or do their advocacy. These were words from John Kyaligonza the Sub county chairperson Kabonero Sub County when he was hosted live in the studios of KRC Fm on 14^th December, 2016 to discuss on ToroDev’s  supported ‘Manya Ekiragiro Kyawe’ program & set topic of discussion on ‘Influence of political authority on the existing health policies in Uganda’.

ToroDev will for the month of December, 2016 be looking at the health sector focusing on the policies governing it, political authority, awareness of citizens, etc every Wednesday 8:00pm-10:00pm on KRC Fm.

Hon. Kyaligonza  called upon political leaders to work with health management committees to improve health service delivery. He urged the health centre management together with the DHO to make sure all health centers have active  health management committees because of the roles they play in as far as health services are concerned.

He acknowledged that HMC’s have not played their roles as required for example monitoring drug stockout by checking what the health center has received and what has been used, monitoring health workers, etc. he said sometimes you find government drugs meant to be received free of charge in government health centers being sold in private drug shops and these committees just seat & watch.

Staff & HMC members meeting to plan for their health center in Kyegegwa district

 Hon.kyaligonza John said leaders should come in to supervise such challenges if we are to improve on drug stock-out, absenteeism of health workers, hygiene & sanitation around the health center, etc.

He said, some existing health policies in Uganda for example equipping health center 111 & 1v’s with maternity wards & other wards for admission and separating male wards from female wards, etc have not been effected because you find a full health center 1v not admitting patients and where it is done the beds are not enough and sometimes the male wards are not separated from female wards. This contravenes the policy hence need for leaders to play their roles of lobbying for these health centers in order for the citizens to access improved health services.

Patients queuing to receive drugs from a government health center

Hon. Kyaligonza called for collective effort from both political & technical people especially area members of parliament to lobby for the health centers in order to access enough drugs, infrastructure, health workers, & other health equipments. He urged the district chairperson, chief administrative officer, district health officer, etc to monitor drugs in these health centers something that will improve on the existing services in the region & country as a whole.

We are grateful to SIDA, NED, SPIDER, ICT4DEM, CIPESA & all other development partners for the financial & technical support.