Five health facilities in Acholi get Shs4b facelift

Mr Justine Otto, a nurse at Alero Health Centre III in Nwoya District, calls patients at a tent beside the facility’s outpatient unit to pick up drugs.

Although all looks well at the health centre, which receives an average of 180 patients daily, Mr Denis Okot Okello, the officer-in-charge of the facility, said they struggle to deliver services.

In an interview with Monitor on Sunday, Mr Okot said the health centre has been operating without electricity, running water, and a in-patient ward for the last four years.

“We only have a maternity ward but we also have to keep the mothers for a short time due to space constraints,” he added.

However, that is about to change after the health facility and four others in West Acholi that lack in-patient wards were chosen to benefit from a Shs4b facelift. 

The Ministry of Health through Enabel, a Belgian development agency, with funding from the USAID, is undertaking construction and rehabilitation of the health centres in Amuru, Gulu, Omoro, and Nwoya districts.  

The other facilities include Lalogi Health Centre IV in Omoro District, Awach Health Centre IV and Loyoajonga Health Centre III (Gulu), and Atiak Health Centre IV (Amuru).

Mr Isaac Okello, the acting Nwoya District health officer, said the intervention is a huge boost since funding to the health department is limited.

“Alero Health Centre III is among the facilities  with  a lot of needs and gaps. Enabel support is timely because in the past, any patient who needed admission was referred elsewhere or to Anaka Hospital in Anaka Town,” Mr Okello said.

The health centre also hopes to restore its laboratory services after they were suspended following the breakdown of a water tank and solar system more than a year ago.

“The solar panels have no problem but the batteries are broken and we cannot conduct any laboratory tests because the microscopes and other equipment need power ,” Mr Okot said.

“We only do tests that need strips, the rest we refer or transport the samples to Anaka General Hospital. We have a hub system where cyclists move to facilities to pick samples and deliver them to Anaka Hospital but they take a long time to return,” he added.

Mr Okot welcomed the financial support, saying: “The patients will be admitted here and that saves us from the burden of referrals and managing complex situations that have always come up due to this problem.”  
Mr Justine Ojara, the Alero Sub-county chairperson, said communities secured an additional three acres of land for the health centre last month towards the expansion and construction of new units.

“Putting up this in-patient ward means this facility is moving towards attaining a health Centre IV status. Since the land at the facility is small, sub-county authorities bought an additional three acres of land,” Mr Ojara said.

Ms Margaret Katusiime, a results-based expert at Enabel, said the Shs4b project will reinforce healthcare systems to deliver accessible and quality services using result-based financing.

She added that it will also strengthen regional coordination of emergency referral systems and address the key infrastructural gaps for quality service delivery.

The project was launched in 2019 to revamp the standards of health services in Acholi Sub-region.
It is also expected to embark on the construction of an ultramodern vaccine store in Nwoya, a neonatal

Intensive Care Unit in Lalogi Health Centre IV, and a blood bank in the region.
Other works include expansion and standardisation of the theatre at Awach Health Centre IV, inpatient and outpatient wards, staff houses, motorised water supply, and storage system to all the rehabilitated health facilities.

Under the project, funding to health facilities will be based on performance while eligible facilities must have been accredited to operate as health centre IIIs, IVs and general hospitals.

Mr Robert Ongom, the Omoro health officer, said the new outpatient department at Lalogi Health Centre IV will revamp the quality of health services. 

“It will attract the population to the health facility and promote economic and social benefits for our communities since a healthy and productive population propels development,” Mr Ongom said. 

“We look forward to protecting and maintaining these facilities and effectively utilising the facility’s budget,” he added.

Dr Monica Imi, the intervention manager (Health) at Enabel, said the Shs4b investment is part of their  efforts to improve the quality of health service delivery in Acholi.

“Since these facilities and the general health systems are underfunded, Enabel’s component of direct financing becomes very crucial. Many of these health facilities do not have enough money to put up new buildings, solar, and big equipment, etc,” Dr Imi said.

She said the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated lockdown measures delayed the construction works.  

“There have been a number of delays, the direct support for the infrastructure should have come much earlier, not at the end of the project, but Covid-19 came and disrupted all the interventions because we couldn’t decide on our own which facilities would benefit from this intervention,” Dr Imi said.