A RAY OF HOPE AMID THE MATERNAL HEALTH GLOOM IN KABALE DISTRICT

By Senfuka Samuel

WRA Uganda

Kabale district is found in south western Uganda about 500km from Kampala. It is one of the two districts White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood Uganda (WRA Uganda) selected to advocate for recruitment, motivation and retention of health workers through a ‘Teaming Up’ approach. This was based on a human resource assessment by WRA Uganda indicating inadequate staffing especially for maternal health.

Budgeting for health workers

16^th December 2011 was a Budget Conference day for Kabale District Local Government which is the basis for the preparation of a budget and work plan for Financial Year (FY) 2012/13 and a time when the district presents the performance of the ending FY and the local governments (Sub-counties) present their budget proposals to be integrated into the district budget.

The outcome is a district Budget Framework Paper (BFP) which is submitted to the central government for consideration; the BFP can be passed back and forth until agreed upon before the national budget is passed. 

Members of the District Council, sub-county chiefs partners and other leaders attending the

District Budget Conference at Rukiko Hall, Kabale

In his report to the District Council, Sub county leaders and other stakeholders, the Chief Administrative Officer (Head of Civil Service) indicated an improvement in the level of health workers staffing from 30% to 57% over the last six months (June-November 2011). This is 8% below the recommended minimum staffing level of 65% by WHO/MoH. The teaming up members who were in attendance including myself had a smile on their faces because the six months referred to is the time we found the Director of Health Services with over 178 recruited health workers who were not deployed because of the wage bill! 

Collaborative Efforts and Successes

Through collaborative efforts, WRA Uganda members petitioned key decision makers including Ministry of Finance, Director of Planning at Ministry of Health, area Members of Parliament over the urgent need to release funds and post the staff to respective health facilities, the response was positive. The number of midwives increased from 12 to 36, and nurses from 76 to 128 among other categories. In addition the number of women who delivered under skilled care increased from 37.9% (April-June 2011) to 46.9% (July-Nov 2011).  Most of the recruited nurses have undergone Comprehensive Training in schools and can deliver both nursing and midwifery services wherever they are deployed. 

The district is also refocusing on Health Centre (HC) IIs at parish level for managing deliveries with a valid justification that it is more accessible to the communities in terms of distance as compared to HC IIIs at Sub-County level, HC IVs at County and Hospital at District level. Midwives have been deployed at these facilities. Kabale District targets to have 74% HC IIs offering quality and focus oriented ANC and PMTCT by end of June 2012. However, it may not be enough to deploy midwives at this level of care without addressing the system issues that are currently impacting negatively on maternal and newborn health (MNH) service delivery. 

Strengthening Health Systems

By design, HC IIs are supposed to deliver mothers and have a midwife post in the approved Public Service Staffing Structure. However, HC IIs have huge issues in attracting and retaining critical cadres of MNH staff due to the location of these health facilities. Most of the HC IIs are located in hard to reach, hard to stay and hard to work rural areas and face chronic shortages of staff. 

Staff motivation is low due to unmet needs; they have unfavorable working conditions with significant lack of staff accommodation and basic diagnostic/maternity equipment. Some centers lack the necessary basic infrastructure like maternity wards. Local Governments will need a lot of support to overcome the operational challenges in order to deliver MNH services that are close to women and well equipped in order to positively change the quality of life of women, newborns, children and families. 

There are problems with decreasing visits of women to antenatal care services with some attributing it to the harvesting season where a number of women could miss ANC appointments due to competing priorities at home. There is a need to make services more easily accessible to women particularly at these times of the year.

Notwithstanding the achievements in the short term, the sector still faces perennial challenges which at times make the hope fade for the low hearted ones!  A one-on-one with the District Director of Health Services Dr Tusiime Patrick reveals more about the health system and services in the district. His major concern and challenge is motivating and retaining those who have been recruited. He cites the problems faced by health workers such as salaries not even matching the cost of living as the main priority.

Dr Tusiime Patrick on left during the interaction

 “The solution is known, central government must increase financing to the health sector based on total surface area of a district and population, the Hard-to-reach, Hard-to-Stay and Hard-to-work nature of a district.The generic resource allocation can not address the individual district challenges. Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Public Service should work out a system and establish how much money is required to provide services at each level of care." Dr. Tusiime recommends

Challenges

It should be noted that Central Government decentralized the responsibilities and duties to Local Governments (LGs) without matching it with financial resources to execute their mandates. Nearly 90% of LGs funding comes from the centre and the biggest percentage comes as conditional funds. Over 70% of the district budgets across the country cover wage bills leaving a paltry 30% for activities and service delivery! Districts are also given ceilings within which they must plan and budget.

About 70% of Ministry of Health budget remains at the ministry headquarters and only 30% is appropriated among 112 districts where the bulk of health service delivery is based. This is worsened by the inefficiencies in collecting internal revenues to augment income from the centre. For instance Kabale district collects about 28% of its target internal revenues (District performance report 2011/2012). Given this situation and the competing district priorities, it makes the budgeting process more of a ritual than a process aiming at enhancing service delivery.

Paradoxically remuneration of one Member of Parliament pays about 20 doctors. The Ministry of Finance has commissioned a review of Local Government financing which is hoped to adequately address the financial discrepancies to enable LGs perform better.

Dr. Tusiime and other hardworking Officers are quite frustrated by the perennial challenges. He further cites the ambulance system which is functional but with operational challenges such as repair and maintenance of all vehicles at all levels of care, inadequate fuel for the ambulances to refer patients and lack of allowances for overtime work by the staff.  

“A Health Centre IV like Kamwezi is about 2hrs drive from the referral hospital with a bad road. It requires about 40 liters of diesel for one referral but the health centre is allocated only UGX 650,000 (Approx USD 260) per month for all routine operations including purchase of fuel and other maintenance costs for the ambulance” He explains. 

At about 22:50hrs as the discussion went into the night; Dr. Tusiime received a phone call from one of the health centres that a mother had complications and needed transport to be referred to Kabale Regional Referral Hospital. This is the only referral health facility which can manage complications because the other seven Health Centre IVs do not have a single doctor so their theatres are non-operational. When I asked Dr Tusiime why there are no doctors the answer was obvious. They all left for better working conditions and even when jobs are advertised there is little response. To partly address the lack of doctors and referrals he suggests task shifting of Clinical Officers by retraining them in surgery to be able to carry out C-Sections.

Dr Tusiime called a driver to go and get the ambulance to pick the mother but the driver needed money to get a motorcycle from his home to where the ambulance was parked. This meant that Dr Tusiime had to pay the bill himself.

Looking forward

Some have called for a review of the user fees and perhaps reinstatement to meet operational costs, as promised access to free services without adequate planning and budgeting for it from the government has placed heavy strain on the health services. Dr. Tusiime suggested:

“Our leaders and other partners should sensitize Community members and make them aware that they have a role to play in saving their lives. They should be made to understand the benefit of contributing to their health.”

A couple of years ago government tabled in Parliament the National Health Insurance Bill but it was later shelved for unclear reasons. The passing of the Bill into an Act may go a long way to address this challenge as it has worked in neighbouring countries like Rwanda.

These are some of the issues which make the existence of WRA more relevant particularly using a teaming up approach to tackle them through advocacy, awareness and mobilization of stakeholders. In order to execute this Teaming Up members were trained in advocacy and communication skills before the budget conference.

In addition, the Teaming Up members prior to the district budget conference met and engaged the district executive council members and district counselors on the key interventions for achieving the national maternal health targets as described and guided in the Road Map where LGs are key implementing institutions. We also lobbied them on the critical core budgeting areas as they discuss the planning and budgeting for FY 2012/13.  

Ms Beebwajuba Mary Kabale District Vice Chairperson addressing the District Executive members, Counselors, technical representatives during a pre district budget meeting organized by WRA members in Kabale.

During the budget conference leaders emphasized focusing on interventions aimed at enhancing service delivery and one of their strategic priorities for the FY 2012/13 is to increase access to quality social services including health. We hope this does not remain rhetoric. It is every one’s responsibility to ensure that these pledges are translated into actions where the leaders deliver to the community members’ expectation.

The Central Government should be bold enough and allocate more resources to the health sector in FY 2012/13. After all, it pledged in the Abuja Declaration (2001) to increase it to 15% of the national budget. For the past decade it has been oscillating between 7-10% of the national budget.

Mr Barusya Julius, Media Rep WRA Kigezi region presenting during a pre budget meeting with district executive and  counselors organized by Teaming Up members

  

A district woman Counselor making a strong submission in support of budget increase for maternal health

Members prioritizing advocacy issues during the advocacy and communication training

Robert Muhereza Kabale based Daily Monitor Journalist presenting group work during advocacy training

Some of Teaming Up members pose for a group photo after training

Chief Administrative Officer giving a district performance report during the budget conference as the district chairperson and District Council Speaker look on

Some Teaming Up members in attendance during the budget conference at Rukiko Hall

The District Chairperson on left and District Council Speaker

Secretary for health (on left), Senfuka Samuel (centre) and Barusya Julius chatting after the district conference 

From left: Secretary for health, Senfuka Samuel, Barushya Julius, David Ssebugwawo and the district Planner discussing after the budget conference

“Everyone IS ME” Campaign Launched to Avert Maternal Deaths

Ms Robina Biteyi, Coordinator WRA Uganda and Mr. Peter Nkhonjera, Country Director Save the Children Uganda addressing the Press at Imperial Royale Hotel (photo by Daily Monitor)

By Nsinda Elman

WRA Uganda

The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood Uganda, Save the Children, and UNFPA in partnership with Ministry of Health have launched Maternal, Newborn and Child Survival campaign code named “Everyone is me,” to sensitize and mobilize the general public to do anything in their reach to reduce the death of mothers and children in the country.

The campaign aims at making sure that everyone plays their role in saving the lives of pregnant women and neonates in order to help achieve the Millennium Development Goal 5 which is to Reduce Maternal mortality by three-quarters and child mortality by two-thirds by 2015.

According to the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey 2006, 6,000 women die every year due to complications related to pregnancy and child birth, 44,500 new borns die before 1 month.

The causes of maternal death in the Country include: Not giving birth under a trained personnel, not giving birth at health facility, Shortage of equipments at health facility and lack of pre-natal and antenatal care.

The campaign which will last for Three months will start from four districts of western Uganda including Kibaale, Kyenjojo, Kabalole, Kamwenge as pilot districts and then spread to the entire country.

Addressing the press at Imperial Royale in Kampala, the Country Director Save the Children Peter Nkhonjera  said that the struggle to end maternal mortality and child death shall be achieved if corporations, communities, individuals working  in private sector and the general public through their active participation.

The National Coordinator White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood Uganda Robina Biteyi urged the general public to embrace the campaign by encouraging pregnant women to go for antenatal check ups, ensure that women give birth at health facility and feed them on good nutrition.

She called on leaders to play their role especially by advocating for additional recruitment motivation and retention of midwives to bridge the current gap of 2000 midwives lacking in the country.

END

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THE UNSUNG HEROES-MIDWIVES

By Senfuka Samuel
One of the proven strategies to combat Maternal and Newborn Health (MNH) is to have adequate MIDWIVES in Health Centers with the support they require to perform their duties. In 2010 White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood (WRA Uganda) carried out an assessment of human resources for Maternal Health (MH) in six districts of Uganda and the findings showed gross understaffing of these critical frontline cadres. Even where they are deployed the working environment is not very supportive. It’s on this basis WRA initiated the Teaming up Approach to contribute to addressing the problem.

The Teaming up Approach is a collaborative effort of WRA Global Secretariat team, National team, a team at District level including the Local Government, CSOs, WRA members, Faith based organizations, the media, health workers and MH passionate individuals. Bugiri District found in Eastern Uganda was selected as one of the two districts to implement this approach. After identifying and understanding the problem, the team decided to advocate at District and National levels and push for more midwives, Nurses and Doctors in Health centers III and IV. This needed members to have adequate skills in advocacy and communication hence training.



Teaming Up members at Tabisa’s staff house (the midwife in uniform) sharing on how to improve motivation & retention of health workers.

After a 2day training in advocacy and communication for MH, members visited Nankoma Health Centre IV to have a feel and appreciate the issues we are pushing for. The only Health Centre IV in the District is located 17km from Bugiri main town. The team was led by Dr. Namboozo a Senior Medical Officer at Nankoma and Mr. Opigo Cyrus, Human Resource Manager-Health. We drove through a bumpy murram road and as you enter the facility the first sight is a bushy compound-a breeding hub for mosquitoes! Also a double cabin pick-up ambulance parked near the entrance which looked to have been grounded for some time due to lack of fuel and general maintenance. This delays and negatively affects the referral system.

Dr. Namboozo led us into the maternity ward where we found Tabisa Onyaki a midwife on duty. She looked so stressed and when we asked her how many midwives they are, and how long her working time is, she said that: “we are four midwives but one is on leave, another one went for a training workshop and the other comes in the night shift. So I work from 8.00am to 9.00pm and then my colleague takes over.” This means Tabisa attends to ANC, Maternity ward and delivery alone! At times Tabisa works 24hours and leaves her 3 months old baby under the care of a 12 year old girl.

All Tabisa’s extra time and workload goes without extra pay apart from her meager monthly salary-indeed a hero dedicated to save women’s lives! All this workload excludes her other expected gender roles at home. The only tangible motivation to Tabisa is a two room accommodation with her two kids and water within the facility. However, the house without electricity also needs urgent renovation. This is a snapshot of the staffing situation and the general health system in Bugiri district and Uganda at large.

Tabisa in front of her house, depicting midwifery as a vocational career as  teaming up members look on.

I asked the Human Resource Manager- Health why the district doesn’t identify funds from internal revenues to top up salaries of these unsung heroes than keep lamenting about inadequate funds from the central government. This innovative strategy has worked elsewhere as a way of motivating health workers. The district leadership should have facility visits to appreciate and prioritize maternal health in the district planning and budgeting.

The findings of Human Resource assessment (WRA Uganda 2010) indicate that Bugiri district requires 66 midwives but only 12 were available! This year the district recruited and deployed more five midwives way below the staffing norms by MoH. Bugiri has nine health centre IIIs which are supposed to provide maternal health services but the situation is not any better.

Nankoma HCIV has a theatre which is non operational due to lack of personnel hence no blood transfusion services too. The theatre was instead turned into a male circumcision room under Safe Circumcision programme! This means that if a pregnant woman has a complication that requires an operation (C-Section) or a blood transfusion she has to be referred to the district hospital. Imagine what would happen if there was a delay at home, delayed transport to Nankoma HC IV and a delayed referral exacerbated by non functional ambulance system!

The Teaming Up members shall continue to engage and advocate to the district leadership to appreciate and prioritize maternal health in the planning and budgeting processes. The strategies shall include a pre-district budget lobby meeting with the district leadership to provide adequate resources for core maternal health interventions and dissemination of advocacy messages. The Secretary for Health committed to table a motion before the district council for discussion and adoption of resolutions to address maternal health in the district.

MDG 5 has registered the slowest progress in Uganda as 2015 timeline target is fast approaching. This calls for collaborative efforts at all levels to accelerate the implementation of Uganda’s Road Map to reduce maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity.

A damaged Bugiri -Nankoma road-This can delay transport and also cause accidents

Mrs Margaret Hasasha sharing a light moment with a young expenctant woman in labour

Dr Namboozo (in T-shirt) sharing about the challenges of the health centre

Mr Ali Iwumbwe and Dr Namboozo identified as maternal health champions for Bugiri District

Teaming UP members during a group work at Advocacy and communication training for maternal health

Some members pose for a group photo after the training

MAKE COMMUNITIES AWARE OF THEIR HEALTH RESPONSIBILITIES - Mrs Janet Museveni

By Senfuka Samuel

                                   L-R: Katy Woods ( WRA Global Mobilization Coordinator UK office),
                               Robina Biteyi (Nationa Coordinator), Mrs. Janet Museveni (Patron),
                                                      Hon. Christine Ondoa (Minster of Health) and Senfuka Samuel (Programme Officer)

On 09^th November, 2011 WRA Uganda Secretariat met with Mrs. Janet Museveni, WRA Uganda Patron ahead of the Annual General Members Meeting scheduled to take place on 18^th November, 2011 at Fairway Hotel. Mrs. Museveni is also the First Lady, a Member of Parliament and Minister of Karamoja Region. The meeting aimed at reflecting on the alliance's achievements, lessons and challenges for 2011 and the way forward for 2012. It was a very cordial meeting and Hon. Christine Ondoa, Minister of Health was in attendance.  

The Patron expressed her appreciation for the achievements the alliance has made in 2011 and called for more efforts and focus on the rural areas where the biggest problem of maternal and newborn deaths exist. “The communities have to be made more aware about their responsibilities to look after their health and prepare for childbirths.” She was concerned that the Ministry of Health (MoH) has not yet strengthened the Village Health Teams (VHTs) to do their work better at the community level. She called on WRA Uganda and MoH to strengthen the prevailing working relationship in contributing towards reduction of maternal and newborn deaths.

Hon. Ondoa pledged to work more closely with White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood and create strong linkages with the ministry's Reproductive Health and Communications departments in order to produce information, education and communication (IEC) materials for district and community levels. The minister added that we need an integrated approach to maternal health, which focuses more on prevention. She mentioned that the ministry has put in place an ambitious integrated plan to eradicate malaria in the next 5years. The ministry is also focusing on malnutrition, scaling up family planning services and training more midwives in collaboration with other partners.

Please do not miss the Patron’s (Mrs. Janet Museveni) full message to all alliance members at the Annual General Members Meeting on 18^th November, 2011 starting at 8:30am at Fairway Hotel, Kampala.

WRA Uganda Gets Support for Namwezi Health Centre III

By Senfuka Samuel

WIMA Treasurer showing to community members and other guests some of the equipment donated as Ms Dorothy Mpiima, Woman MP Buikwe district witnesses.

Namwezi Health Centre III is found in Njeru Town Council, in the newly created district of Buikwe. It is 5km away from Jinja Regional Referral Hospital, Jinja district. As part of the services offered by a health centre III, Namwezi also offers maternity services. According to Ms Ruth Nanziri the In-charge as well as a Clinical Officer, on average the facility manages 3 deliveries a day. Over 300 women come for antenatal care services a month (1^st visit and subsequent ones). It has two enrolled midwives and two enrolled nurses.

By WRA Uganda zoning, Namwezi health centre is found in Jinja region. WRA Uganda Secretariat staff members have been making regular visits to the region and working with Namwezi Health centre staff and community members and WRA members. Besides the common challenges faced by health centres in Uganda such as inadequate staffing, low pay for health workers, lack of staff housing, Namwezi also lacked essential medical equipment. For instance hospital recommended delivery; examination and resting beds. The available beds were nearly broken down. Among other equipment the health centre lacked was a Blood Pressure machine in light of the known fact that 6% of maternal deaths in Uganda are caused by eclampsia. This made it difficult for the health workers to detect such complications in early stages of pregnancy.

The centre’s undesirable situation drove WRA Uganda to approach Women’s International Maternity Aid (WIMA) and appealed for support to save the lives of women in Njeru through provision of life saving equipment. WIMA is a voluntary non-profit organization of Ugandan expatriate women dedicated to helping the people of Uganda improve and extend mother and child care facilities. Gladly WIMA honored WRA Uganda request and visited the centre to assess the situation and later informed WRA that the request was granted.

On 28^th October 2011 WRA Uganda in collaboration with its regional members, Namwezi health centre management, community and Town Council leaders as well as community members organized a function at Namwezi Health Centre to officially receive the support from WIMA. A team of WIMA members led by Ms Eleanor Bageine, Chairperson, Gorretie Bamwanga, Secretary and WIMA Treasurer officially handed over an assortment of equipment to the centre that included the following.

1.                          Delivery bed (1)

2.                         Ward Bed Adult (1)

3.                          Examination bed (1)

4.                          Mattress with cover (1)

5.                          Bed pan (1)

6.                         Wheel chair (1)

7.                          Oxygen Regulator (1)

8.                          Resuscitator (infant) (1)

9.             Delivery Instrument set (1)

10.                    Stethoscope (1)

11.                    Stethoscope feotal wood (2)

12.                    Infusion Stand (2)

13.                    Screen with caster (1)

14.                    Blood Pressure Machine (1)

15.                    Weighing scale (Baby) (1)

16.                    Thermometer (1)

17.                    Autoclave /Sterilizer (1)

18.                    Waste bin (1)

19.                    Aprons (3)

Hon Dorothy Mpiima. Woman MP for Buikwe district also graced the occasion. She was moved by the support and also donated a generator for power back up. Mr. Majerani Luboyera, Njeru Town Council Deputy Clerk also donated a lap top to enhance record and data management for the centre.  

We extend our great appreciation to the benevolent members of WIMA. There is no better way to Play your Part like WIMA did in seeing that NO woman dies while giving life!

Mothers happily witnessed the support intended to contribute to save their lives

Oxygen Regulator with other assortments 

A bed, waste bin and screen with caster

Ms Robina Biteyi and Margaret Hasasha charting with community members who turned up to witness the support

Robina and Margaret inside the health centre

Ms Eleanor Begeine, Chairperson WIMA giving a speech

Ms Eleanor holding a baby in show of love they need from everyone

Members pose for a Group photo

The White Ribbon Alliance Kabale Donate To the Siamese Twins

By Elman Nsinda

WRA Uganda

Parents receive the funds. L-R: Dr Male Deputy Executive Director of Mulago Hospital, Mr. Byamugisha (father of the twins), Mr Isaac Kawonawo, Ms Robina Biteyi, Mr Sam Arinaitwe, Mrs Rosette Byamugisha (mother of the twins) and Sr. Ssenkabirwa in charge of the twins. 

A young couple Tumusiime and Rosette from Kabale District were blessed with twins early this year; The C-section was conducted successfully at Kabale Regional Referral Hospital. Twins were found with abnormality-Siamese twins conjoined at the abdomen. This called for specialist care and support for the newborns to survive. The support ranges from financial, medical, psychological and love. This prompted The White Ribbon Alliance Kabale Regional members to spearhead a fundraising drive through a charity walk in the district to support the family.

Members were able to mobilize UGX 4.1 Million (About USD$1500). On 24th September 2011, the team together with the WRA Uganda office and Mulago National Referral Hospital management organized an official handed over of the funds to the parents at Mulago Hospital where the babies were admitted for specialist care and assessment. This was done before members of the Press to create more awareness about newborns health and the support which is required from other well-wishers. It was also important for purposes of accountability and transparency of the members.

The head of the Kabale team Arinaitwe Samuel (WRA Youth Representative) said that (they) as safe motherhood advocate had to come up with the little they had to help babies survive. Others in attendance were Kawonawo Isaac, Secretary WRA Kabale region, Ms Robina Biteyi, National Coordinator among others.   

Please follow this YouTube link to watch the official handover of the funds at Mulago or copy and paste it in your browser: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=T441nTuO0qw&feature=share_email&ytsession=74Pv0rT_e8EwjH2FSlw2nP1-lAkOY_6T4_nReuzJJ5V0oXHbVKCsbdks0zGYEDJvokiEMv8I0XjGAGn_P2g9fBrBjTxt0nCZoPCx8eWWf5czdJqYzyz1uJWHYjYkOCZuzFX_OeqL10MMo2IFnQQnaQm7TtnIoiexK1VtKHicoW_T2WAWbttYnqhfJNulXJqOdk6YG20nI-b8RjUPfDk4nynTsHM6AOeHsLw2ggxCGjBU-CLR-GO_vxgMA5IgldF9We33XUn3rDsQnrmPEIX-hXOnYiY5_MFt-WAXSPGbrUQ

Ms Robina Biteyi, National Coordiantor talking to the media after handover the funds.