Improving rural health services: The case of a family physician's contribution at Aber Hospital, Northern Uganda.

Samuel Okori,Innocent K Besigye

doi:10.4102/phcfm.v13i1.3229

Samuel Okori, Innocent K Besigye

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4102/phcfm.v13i1.3229

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Abstract

Family physicians (FPs) provide quality comprehensive primary care services responsive to the needs of the people they are serving. In Uganda, FPs are still few with poor visibility hence difficult to demonstrate their impact. This short report describes the contribution of a FP guided by the principles of family medicine to improving health care services to meet the needs of a rural population in Northern Uganda. This was carried out through targeted capacity building for teams within various hospital departments and the provision of transformative leadership and management. Hospital laboratory and radiology departments were strengthened to provide the needed diagnostic services to the population and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) care and tuberculosis screening were improved through the establishment of community service centres together with strengthening community outreaches. The transformative leadership of the multidisciplinary team provided by the FP significantly improved the quantity and quality of health care services.

Highlights

Physicians (FPs) are trained to provide quality primary care services that are responsive to the health needs of individuals, families and communities
This short report describes the contribution of an Family physicians (FPs) based at Aber Hospital to improving rural health care in Northern Uganda
Improving rural health care requires a complex mixture of skills within a multidisciplinary team

Summary

Introduction

Physicians (FPs) are trained to provide quality primary care services that are responsive to the health needs of individuals, families and communities. Physicians contribute to improving the performance of health systems.[4,5] In Uganda, FPs perform several roles including clinical care, leadership of health care teams, manager of human and capital resources as well as teaching health professions students.[5] They are able to perform these roles because of their training as stewards of the health care system that aims to improve the quantity and quality of the services. This short report describes the contribution of an FP based at Aber Hospital to improving rural health care in Northern Uganda.

Results

Conclusion