The Ministry of Health (MOH) has revealed the majority of maternal mortality cases are common at Health Center IIIs, attributing it to challenges in the referral system.
Speaking at a handover event where Rotarians donated a batch of fifty tricycle ambulances to different communities across the country, Hanifah Kawooya, the Minister of State for Health in Charge of General Duties said mothers are still turning up to care when it is too late to save them.
She said they still get cases of mothers who get stranded with complications at places of traditional attendants and worse, this is also happening among teenage girls who need extra attention since they are giving birth at an early age.
Currently, the maternal mortality rate in Uganda stands at 284 women per 100,000 live births but according to Prime Minister Robina Nabbanja, while this is a decrease from 336 mothers per 100,000 live births which the country recorded in the recent past, there are still three key constraints affecting the provision of maternal health services.
According to Nabbanja, they include cultural beliefs that stop some women from going to the hospital to deliver, the information gap, and corruption within health facilities.
Nabbanja who officiated at the event tasked that the donated tricycles will help them in ensuring quick referral and recommended that they be handed over to Voluntary Health Teams (VHTs) since they have now been trained to offer such emergency services as rushing mothers to where they can access appropriate care.
She welcomed the move to have tricycle ambulances saying that in many places they have been using motorcycles to take mothers to hospitals but these are quite an inconvenience with no shelter in case one has to deliver or develop complications along the way.
Nabbanja urged the beneficiaries to put them to proper use and ensure that they undergo periodical maintenance checks if the service is to be sustained.
Overall, Rotary district 9214 will be donating three hundred and twenty tricycle ambulances to 320 sub-counties across the country. This comes at a time when Uganda is planning to revamp the ambulance system clearly stratifying in a new policy what type of ambulances are expected to serve at a particular level of health facilities.The tricycles will serve up to the level of Health Center III.