Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The distribution of medical services in Uganda

1972; Elsevier BV; Volume: 6; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/0037-7856(72)90107-2

1879-2987

Irving Gershenberg, Mark A. Haskell,

Global Maternal and Child Health

The provision of medical and educational facilities serve a dual purpose. They improve the quality of the life of the individuals who can take advantage of these services by making them healthier and more knowledgeable and they enhance their productivity. Healthier, more knowledgeable and more productive individuals, in turn, can make a greater contribution to the economic and social development of the nation. The government of Uganda has declared its dedication to the enhancement of the quality of life of all its citizens. This reflects its concern to build a socialist state [1]. In more precise terms, what this involves is the development of educational, medical and other facilities as well as economic opportunities which will be available to the mass of the population rather than to any particular group, defined geographically, ethically, tribally, or economically. Given the existing economic resources of Uganda, this suggests with regard to the establishment of schools and health services, that monies be allocated so that all of the people may shortly be able to have access to some such service. In the field of health it follows that preference be given to the construction of medical centers and dispensaries rather than fully equipped hospitals since a multiple of centers and dispensaries can be built and staffed for the cost of a hospital. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the Government of Uganda's current medical program to determine its consistancy with the objective of making medical service available to the greatest number of people in the shortest amount of time. Since Uganda is currently engaged in writing its third 5-year development plan, this exercise may prove to be instructive. The analysis may also be relevant to the planning of health services in other less economically developed countries where, as in the case of Uganda, poverty acts as the major determinant of the extent and pattern of medical care. To provide this analysis this paper presents in Part I what might be termed a macro-analysis of Uganda's health services, discussing the distribution and adequacy of these services over the nation at large. Part II analyses in more detail the medical services which are utilized in a particular district. This analysis is largely based on materials developed in a field survey in that area. In this analysis our concern will not be the allocation of monies between major sectors of the economy. The prevailing sectoral allocation, determined largely by political as well as other realities, will be taken as given. What is the subject matter of this essay then is how are the resources which have been allocated to the health sector being used and howmight their use and distribution be improved in order to make health services available to the greatest number of people in the shortest amount of time.