The key players in the provision of health services include government, private sector , not for profit organisations, private health practitioners, traditional and complementary medical practitioners and the informal sector.
Characteristics of the sector
- Uganda has scored a lot of success in the fight against HIV/AIDS
- The population’s ability to purchase medicines and health supplies has generally improved over the recent past.
- In Uganda, medicines are supplied through both the public and the private sectors
- The health status indices of Uganda are still very low
- Effective management of the healthcare sector is still lacking resulting in the misuse of the resources allocated to the sector by government.
- Uganda’s doctor-to-patient ratio is low
- The sector is suffering from inadequate funding for the development of the infrastructure
Health infrastructure in Uganda
- A network of properly functioning health facilities is not yet attained.
- The government hospital lack capacity to maintain the medical equipment.
Geographical access to health services
- The national average for the percentage of people living within 5 kilometres radius to a health facility is estimated to be 57%
- There are variations with access ranging from as low as 7% of the population within 5 kilometres of a health facility in Kotido to 100% in Jinja, Tororo and Kampala districts.
- Rural communities are particularly affected mainly because health facilities are mostly located in towns along main roads.
- Private health facilities to date are mainly more concentrated in urban centres than in the rural locales.