Namugongo Div gets a second Health Center III in Nsawo: construction in progress, 360m earmarked for staff recruitment
Namugongo Division given a second Health Center III in Nsawo: construction in progress, 360m earmarked for staff recruitment
Namugongo Division in Kira Municipality has been given a second Health Center III to address on the Health related challenges experienced in the area. The Division has been having only Namugongo Health Center II which was of recently elevated to Health Center III in order to increase on the services offered.
With a rapidly growing population Namugongo a Health Center II was could not meet the community health demands and so, much of the required health services have been offered by private player.
According to the Ministry of Health threshold standards a Health Centre II is expected to offer basic services to about 5000 people a month but for Namugongo Division with the population of 189,523 people with a population density of 8,841km2 (National population statistics 2024 by Uganda Bureau of Statistics) has be stressed more than double.
Hon. Rose Nakafeero Ssuka, Executive Secretary for Education and Health said that the Municipal health sector is so stretched in that if its moving by the Ministry of Health Standards all facilities in the Municipality are performing beyond what they are supposed but when compared to the community needs and demands its only managing to treat symptoms than the real disease.
“The Health Service needs not only in Namugongo but in the whole of Kira are too high but we can’t go beyond our capacity and so the gaps are bridged by the private facilities” she says adding on that as the Municipal leadership when the Municipality got awarded as the best in the national assessments by the Office of the Prime Mister the 1.8bn award was allocated to health in order to improve on the performance in that line. “We allocated a particular percentage to Namugongo Health Centre II but the space was not enough for the desired construction and so, with negotiations with the Division Leadership we agreed to have an extension of the facility at the available land in Namugongo Nsawo areas and as talks continued with the Ministry we got more both the facility and its extension got elevated to Health Centre III, and funding not only for construction but also for staffing and purchasing of necessary tools to meet the standards have been coming in” Says Ssuka with a smile confirming success.
Dr. Samuel Mukasa, the Principal Municipal Medical Officer says that so far some the facility is at final stages. “As the Municipality in our budget we have been prioritizing our need for elevation and this captured the Ministry’s attention to give us all the necessary support to meet the standards and in our running budget we have over 360 million shillings earmarked for recruitment of staff and as soon as the facility is completed we are set to equip it and have our people worked on from there and this will not only reduce pressure from the Namugongo Health Centre but also save the people who have been moving distances in search of government facilities”.
He adds on, besides structural improvement elevation of a facility from one level to another means increased staffing, funding, medical supplies and improved services. Due to such elevation there are cases that we are going to start handling at different facilities and so far there are some senior staffs whom we have already recruited and many still in the process to meet the standards.”