Govt to set up more NICUs at public health facilities
Health teams and guests at the Luweero Hospital NICU on November 17, 2024, as Uganda celebrated the World Premature Day. PHOTO | DAN WANDERA
What you need to know:
- The World Health Organisation (WHO) target is to reduce the number of babies that die per 1,000 births to 12. The figure is yet to be attained by many countries, Dr Anna Akullo indicates.
Government has promised to set up more Standard Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) at various regional referral hospitals across the country.
According to Dr Richard Muhagi, the Commissioner in charge of Reproductive and Infant Health at the Ministry of Health, cases of 23-week newly born babies can be managed at health facilities with the Level-3 Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU), but the country only has five of them.
“We currently have about five Level-3 NICUs, but the government has a plan to establish more NICUs at Level-3. But it is now clear that with the availability of the other NICUs at Level-2, more lives have been secured,” Dr Muhagi told the caregivers as Uganda joined the rest of the World to celebrate the Premature Day at Luweero Hospital on November 17.
Between 2016 and 2024, Uganda has managed to reduce the number of babies that die from 27-22 per 1,000 births partly because of the multi-stakeholder initiatives that target securing lives of the newborns according to Dr Anna Akulo, the President of the Uganda Pediatric Association.
“We celebrate the progress so far made in securing the lives of the newborn. We still have some challenges and gaps to address that range between having standard NICUs, emphasising lifesaving skills for facilities and homes and setting standard guidelines in the management of the newborns,” she said.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) target is to reduce the number of babies that die per 1,000 births to 12. The figure is yet to be attained by many countries, Dr Anna Akullo indicates.
At Luweero General Hospital where the NICU recently procured under ADARA Newborn organisation, the facility is faced with insufficient power supply that is always off, Dr Innocent Nkonwa, the district health officer indicates.
“We would be doing better now that we have an independent NICU established by ADARA Newborn, but we have inefficiency in the power supply that risks the unit output. We have 430 deliveries per month and we keep referring cases to the NICU for further management,” he said.
Uganda targets achieving 21.9 neonatal deaths per 1,000 live births by 2030 against the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and WHO target of 12 neonatal deaths per 1,000 live births.
Dr Suzan Tino, the director of maternal, newborn and child health at ADARA Development said setting up a regional neonatal hub as centre of excellence is now a priority. This will be implemented in partnership with the government of Uganda to improve the lives of the newly born in the greater Luweero Districts of Nakaseke, Nakasongola and Luweero.
“We shall in consultation with the Ministry of Health set up a second regional neonatal hub targeting a high-burden region in Uganda,” she said.
Since the partnership began in 2018 for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit services, the survival rate is at 96.5 per cent for the new babies referred at the units based Nakaseke, Kiwoko and Luweero Hospitals in the Greater Luweero, ADARA Development statistics show.
Statistics from the Ministry of Health show that 200,000 premature babies are born every year in Uganda. The factors leading to premature and neonatal deaths include the malaria disease burden (Neonatal) malaria, anaemia among other health-related complications.
