UGANDA – The Ministry of Health of Uganda has launched the first-ever Children Surgery National Plan that aims at scaling up paediatric surgical services to regional referral and national hospitals in the country.
The five-year plan will be in collaboration with the Kids Operating Room, a global health charity.
It will see an improvement in the paediatric surgical care system in the regional referral and national hospitals across the country in a bid to develop a critical mass of highly skilled human resources for health, including paediatric surgeons as well as improve the infrastructure and equipment of theatres.
Speaking during the launch at the Ministry of Health in Kampala, the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Dr Diana Atwine acknowledged the shortage of both human resources and equipment.
“We have now put significant focus on expanding access to services for paediatric surgery and developing tertiary units to manage complicated cases,” Dr Atwine said.
“This includes the establishment of Entebbe children’s hospital, renovation and equipment of operating theatres across referral and district hospitals, the establishment of the ICUs across all regional referral hospitals, training more general surgeons and support staff among other initiatives.”
She noted that the plan will start with national hospitals and regional referral hospitals before being expanded.
The director of clinical services in the Ministry of Health, Dr Charles Olaro said that it is possible for the country to build comprehensive surgical services for children in the country.
“The plan is to have a well-established network of hospitals across the country as well as adequate local expertise. From the task force convened recommendation is to develop a super hub where at least 21 paediatric surgeons will be trained and employed by the end of 2027,” Dr Olaro noted.
The super hub-hubs spoke model will see sharing of resources, continuous mentorship and better communication through referral networks with lower healthcare-level facilities.
In this model, a super hub will be equipped with better resources to provide specialists and superspecialists care.
A hub will have all the required resources to provide paediatric surgery while receiving support from the super hub with the option to refer patients needing more advanced to the super hub hospital.
Speaking at the function, Garreth Wood, the chairperson and co-founder of the Kids Operating Room said the plan will have a great impact on the healthcare system of the country.
“This will help more children get the right care, at the right time and in the right place, something we should all be extremely proud of. If fully implemented, it will save thousands of lives in years to come,” Wood said.
Uganda currently has only eight paediatric surgeons who work at Mulago National Hospital and Mbarara referral hospital.
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