While attending a high-level meeting in Moscow at the side-lines of Russian Healthcare Week that runs until December 6th, Dr. Joseph Okware, the Director of Governance and Regulation in the Ministry of Health revealed that key areas in which Uganda needs the intervention of the Russian Federation include infectious diseases, strengthening emergency medical services, electronic medical records and training healthcare specialists.
Uganda is seeking collaboration with Russia to strengthen its medical referral system, which is currently hindered by the reliance on paper records, making it difficult for medical workers to effectively track patients' medical histories.
While
attending a high-level meeting in Moscow at the side-lines of Russian
Healthcare Week that runs until December 6th, Dr. Joseph Okware, the
Director of Governance and Regulation in the Ministry of Health revealed that key
areas in which Uganda needs the intervention of the Russian Federation include infectious diseases, strengthening emergency
medical services, electronic medical records and training healthcare
specialists.
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Already,
Okware reveals that the government of the Russian Federation has already supported
laboratory work by donating mobile laboratory trucks which are mainly used to
respond to disease outbreaks.
At the
meeting, Prof Mikhail Murashko asked attending countries to list the areas of
interest where they would like to collaborate with the Ministry of Health of
the Russian Federation after delivering his address that highlighted the
structure of the Russian Healthcare system.
Okware says
Uganda had already indicated to Russia the key areas where the country needs help
at an earlier conference on combating infectious disease which happened in
Kampala earlier this year.
“We have
continued to send relevant experts from Uganda to have discussions on the
technical areas we agreed upon in that conference. But on our radar, we also
need to learn from Russia on how you have managed to build a good
system for handling emergencies like accidents,” Dr. Okware told the meeting
adding that the issue of electronic medical records needs urgent improvement to
match Russia which he said is very advanced.
According to him, being accurate
with records helps in making medical decisions promptly and eliminates unnecessary
repeats. Uganda launched the digital health system in 2023 but at a recent meeting, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health Dr. Diana Atwine revealed that they hadn't yet made reasonable strides due to challenges of power outages in addition to the fact that many health workers are not willing to change to electronic systems.
Prof
Murashko acknowledged the already existing collaboration between Uganda and the
Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation on managing epidemic diseases like
Ebola, adding that the Russian Federation was the first to manufacture Ebola
vaccines.
Dr. Okware is
accompanied by Dr. Juliet Birungi, Consultant Gyne-oncologist working at the
Mulago Specialised Women and Neonatal Hospital. The 5-day
Russian Health Week 2024 is being held at the ExpoCentre in Moscow and has
attracted international health sector players to showcase the various
advancements in health care in their respective countries.
