A section of Village Health Teams (VHTs) in Maracha have undergone skills training in emergency care in bid to build community First Aid Responders (CFARs) in Maracha. Maracha District alone requires 1382 CFARs."This training is a response to growing cases of emergency mortalities in Maracha. A few weeks ago, we lost a mother due to uncontrolled bleeding in Kijomoro Sub County." Many people continue to perish on Arua-Koboko highway. The only District ambulance has broken down making response very difficult.
The 3 day, first-of-its-kind training conducted by accredited national EMS trainers; Aliga Cliff Usher, Emergency and Critical Care Specialist from Aga Khan University, Mr. Jokindu Ronald from Muni University and Dr. Candia Emmanuel, EMS Coordinator for West Nile with support from office Hon. Oguzu Lee and Ogaget, a company that leases emergency transport and connects emergency care seekers to providers attracted over 40 CFARs from 3 greater sub counties in Maracha.
The VHTs were equipped with skills to respond to common emergencies in the communities which among others covered basics of dealing with emergencies like breathing complications, fractures, burns, shocks, to mention.
The CFARs' training is a culmination of the partnership between Ogaget and the office of Area MP, Hon. Oguzu Lee who in 2018 won award as one of the Top 30 Health Innovators in Africa for championing a National Ambulance Service system which sought to facilitate quickest access emergency care with view of strengthening health systems in Uganda.
Oguzu noted that in Uganda, locating emergency care is an upheaval task yet available care assets are often underdutilized. Today of the 44m people, according to Ministry of Health data, less thank 7% of the population has access to emergency ambulance despite growing growing cases of emergency mortality and road carnage. It take not less than 1 hour to locate an emergency help in this country according to some estimates.
Emergency care in Uganda is ill-resourced with infrastructure and critical care skills still inadequate. Having been a victim of such none functional system, cognizant of the challenges the country faces and the inability of the government to fix all these problems singlehandedly, partnership with private sector and people of goodwill is one sure way to respond to the challenge.
Oguzu called on government to support such initiatives to build the critical mass of responders and to scale community response capability.
The team of trainers called on participants to ensure their safety fast at all times, remain committed, diligent and reach out to wider public while observing best practices.
To address mobility challenges often faced by the responders and inaccessibility to emergency transport problems, a critical component of emergency response, the MP facilitated VHTs with 10 bikes through a lease-to-own arrangement. These bikes in addition will provide livelihood options to VHTs who are not on payroll but volunteers.
The participants in concluding remarks commended Hon. Oguzu Lee for his vision and passion for emergency care which many saw as the face of a functional healthcare in any country. They further appealed to various stakeholders to ensure this training is extended to all VHTs if the goal of Universal Health Coverage is to be achieved in Uganda.
Oguzu thanked the participants for their sacrifice and noted that the success of the training will be judged by the impact of the trainees in dealing with emergencies in their various communities.
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