MWANGA Juliet (Ms) | Quality of Care for Common Childhood Infections in Low Level Private Health Facilities in Mbarara District, Western Uganda

MWANGA Juliet Amumpaire examined the quality of care for common childhood infections in low-level Private Health facilities in Mbarara District. The majority of childhood deaths in Uganda result from pre-preventable conditions. About 50% of sick children are managed by lower-level private health facilities yet the quality of healthcare they provide is not known. She found poor quality of health care for common childhood infections at these low-level private health facilities. While first-line medicines for the treatment of the health conditions were available, and the clinical conditions were often identified correctly wrong treatments were given in over 50% of the consultations. Most facilities lacked clinical guidelines, in-service refresher training, and supportive supervision and oversight by regulating bodies. These findings highlight the urgent need for responsible stakeholders in health to employ innovative modes of knowledge and skills transfer to build capacity, provide oversight, and support supervision in innovative low-level private health facilities. The study was funded by SIDA and supervised by Prof. Joan Nakayaga Kalyango, and Prof. Grace Ndeezi, Assoc. Prof. Tobias Alfvén, and Assoc. Prof. Karin Källander.