University transforms Ugandan health centre
Friday 5 May 2017
A UGANDAN health centre which had not delivered a baby in more than 16 years has been transformed thanks to the efforts of University of Salford staff and students.
The Kagote Health Centre delivered its first baby in years just four months after students and academics from the University began work there in 2014.
Now, thanks to improvements made by the Knowledge For Change charity run by Professor Louise Ackers, along with their partners One Brick At A Time, the centre in the country’s remote western Kabarole District is delivering around 44 babies every month.
Previously, women from the area would have had to travel long distances to larger hospitals – if someone could pay for the journey – or faced a risky home pregnancy without access to midwives. If they made it to a hospital, they would have faced huge queues, may have had to deliver without a bed – a so-called ‘floor case’ – before seeing further delays waiting for postnatal treatment.
Ministry visitors
Officials have been so impressed by the transformation that the facility has been chosen to host the national celebrations on International Day of the Midwife on Friday May 5. Around 1,000 people are expected to visit the facility including senior representatives of the Ministry of Health and the Kabarole District.
Supported by the presence of British midwifery volunteers, improvements made by the charity, which provides undergraduate placements in the Ugandan public health sector, included building a placenta pit, a patient waiting area, upgrading laboratory facilities and enlarging the delivery room to provide greater privacy.
They also fixed plumbing, provided new beds and created a kitchen for patients and their families to use.
Three midwives from the centre have been awarded Commonwealth Professional Fellowships to study at the University of Salford, while back-up midwives were provided to cover their training period.
900 births monthly
The charity has also worked with Kampala City Council Authority to create a fully operational delivery suite, postnatal ward, neonatal unit and operating theatre at the Kisenyi Health Centre IV in the country’s capital.
Once again, this facility had not delivered a baby since opening eight years before K4C became involved. More than 900 mothers now deliver at the centre every month, and each of these have been given specialist maternity and neonatal care without having to burden the larger Mulago National Referral Hospital.
The charity is also currently involved in two other health centres in the Kabarole District, and their volunteers and students are supporting service improvements and research in Buhinga Regional Referral Hospital.
Academics from the University of Salford’s K4C project have also published three open access books reflecting on their experiences of improving healthcare in the African country.
Pregnancy risk
Professor Louise Ackers, chair in social justice at the University of Salford said: “The insight into healthcare which our students are able to gain while working in Uganda is unlike anything they will be able to get in the UK, but the work they’ve done there is also having a major impact on the lives of women in the country.
“Previously, the facilities at Kagote were so poor that they hadn’t delivered a single baby in 16 years, meaning women faced significant delays or undergo a risky home birth without the aid of an experienced midwife on hand.
“The fact that the Ugandan Health Ministry will be visiting this health centre really demonstrates the significance of what’s been done there, and the difference that Knowledge For Change have been able to make.”
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