Health facilities in Lira district have been equipped to improve management of preeclampsia condition. This follows advocacy visits to different health facilities by HEPS-Uganda and the district leadership during the commemoration of the world Pre-eclampsia day on 22nd May 2019.
Lira Regional Referral Hospital for example has made several changes at its maternity ward to improve the health care for pregnant mothers.
Sister Judith Nanyonjo the hospital Senior Principle Nursing Officer revealed that the facility receives at least five mothers with pre-eclampsia condition but the ward was too small to accommodate all of them at once. She also said that the ward lacked patient trolleys to transfer mothers from the labour ward to the theater and vis versa and that they were using stretchers to improvise.
“Detecting preeclampsia requires us to also have blood pressure machines. But we don’t have any and we have been relying on the interns to lend us their BP machines but this is not sustainable since the interns are only here for a limited period of time.” She noted
The leaders and implementing partners committed to work together to find solutions to the callenges that health facilities are facing.
HEPS-Uganda team in August visited some of the health facilities to follow up on commitment made by the hospital administration and the leaders to improve maternal health care.
We found Sister Judith Nannyonjo at Lira hospital administration block. She was quite excited about the changes on the maternity ward and these include;
- Expansion of the maternity ward
- Purchased 52 mattresses and four beds
- Purchased patient four trolley
- Constructed walkways to protect patients from rain and sunshine
- Implementing partners RHITES Lango donated four BP machines and preeclampsia management protocals and the hospital has instituted a committee to order for medicines especially magnesium Sulphate on time
“Ï would like to thank HEPS-Uganda for giving us space to speak about the challenges our facility was facing. Ï feel proud to see that every mother can have their blood pressure checked, those with preeclampsia managed because we have Magnesium Sulphate all the time.” she said
She however noted that they still face a challenge of keeping the babies warm because they lack enough incubators.
At Amach Health Center IV, Dr. Isaac Orec, the in charge noted that the facility has since purchased six blood pressure machines to detect the condition among the women.
“We have improved in preeclampsia case detection among pregnant women because every ward has a blood pressure which wasn’t the case before. We have also repaired our ambulance so that has helped to refer mothers with the condition to Lira hospital since we have issues with our theater.” he said
Pre-eclampsia is a pregnancy disorder characterized by hypertension especially after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
The condition is the second cause of maternal deaths worldwide and the leading cause of maternal death at Mulago National Referral hospital. However, during the Commemoration of world Pre-eclampsia Day on Wednesday last week, health facility in charges called for support from government to enable them handle mothers with the condition.
