Advocacy

To enhance and promote academic and clinical credibility for palliative care

Advocacy for palliative care in Uganda is carried out by different stakeholders under the leadership of the Ministry of Health, PCAU (Palliative Care Association of Uganda) and several academic institutional partnerships.

 

PcERC through MMPCU operates within this framework to raise the awareness for palliative care, improve access and ensure quality, evidenced-based services for palliative care. Read our updates below!

In May 2023, we had the opportunity to present to the Ugandan Ministry of Health (MOH) regarding our work. Dr Peace Bagasha, our board chair, shared achievements, current challenges, and requests. We advocated for palliative care posts within two regional government hospitals. Our presentation was recommended to a higher level stakeholder’s meeting and we will work with the Palliative Care Association of Uganda (PCAU) to agree on the next steps.

In 2021, the MOH asked all hospitals to establish palliative care units, and distributed Health Management Information Systems (HMIS) reporting books for palliative care. This allows us to input our data into the hospital’s reporting systems. The HMIS reporting books will become an advocacy tool for further PC inclusion in the MOH system regarding budgeting, human resources deployment, essential medicines availability, and allocated office space. 

During the Burdette Trust grant to train nurses around Uganda in paediatric palliative care and nurse leadership, nurse Florence Nalutaaya visited the nurses for mentorship. During her visits, she advocated for palliative care units for each hospital visited and two of these provided space for a palliative care unit. We also supported palliative care integration in paediatric clinics, advocating for the trained nurse to work together with their clinical teams.

We continue to engage with both Kiruddu and Mulago Hospital pharmacies to ensure continuous availability of oral morphine and other essential palliative care medicines for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) at both hospitals. Recently, pharmacists at Kiruddu were trained in basic palliative care, alongside hospitals nurses and social workers, which has brought palliative care to more patients and their families. 

Our team continues to collect and share stories from beneficiaries of our services which are then shared as advocacy tools to our donors, policy makers and well-wishers and these with assistance from our programmes consultant Hannah Ikong.  This has been a good way of sharing what we do, especially when patients and families express their needs and how the team has made a difference in their lives.  

We thank the executive directors at Kiruddu and Mulago Hospitals for their allocation of resources, which include several staff members and office space. These include a ward office on Level 4B at Mulago, and an ward office at Kiruddu Hospital, which increases our visibility. In addition, interning doctors have been deployed to work with our team on 2-week rotations, allowing opportunities for mentorship and patients' greater access to palliative care.