Save Lives with Emergency Care in Uganda

Emergency Medicine is a field, with a knowledge base of essentially every other discipline in medicine that require a wide arrange of procedural skills; practitioners need to constantly stay up to date with required skills for patient survival, recovery and reduced chances of permanent harm in the minutes and hours following the arrival at the Emergency department. This requires significant support to be achievable

To support our ECP students, Master of Emergency Medicine Residents at Mbarara University, ECP trainers and Masaka Referal Hospital Emergency department staff,We carried out capacity building trainings in both Ultrasound and pediatric Advanced Life Support at both Mbarara University of Science and Technology and Masaka Regional Referral Hospital.

The training provided Emergency Care professions with high level content in both Ultrasound and Pediatric Advanced Life support, learnt new skills, and received additional gadget (bedside) use and management skills. This training provided them with the path to lifelong learning and to be able to provide quality care to vulnerable patients in their communities.

Training deliverables;

(a) Pediatric Advanced Life support Training ( PALs )

 20 Staff were trained at Masaka Regional Referral Hospital

 Pediatric Teaching Materials were distributed ( AEDs,Mannequins)

(b) Ultrasound Training

16 staff were trained at Masaka Regional Referral Hospital

15 Master of Emergency Medicine Residents were trained at Mbarara University of Science and Technology

(c) Ultrasound Training for Trainers

7 ECP trainers were trained at Masaka Regional Referal Hospital

An unacceptable number of Ugandan’s still die or suffer disabilities because of the inability to access emergency care in good time. Jackeline is an accountant by profession with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) and an asthmatic condition. “All I remember is that I blacked out of the blue,” she says. “The emergency care professionals helped me a lot, and they gave me the care that I needed to save my life,” she adds.

With an HT condition, Jackeline is constantly in need of care. Fortunately for her, the proximity of working in and living near a facility with emergency care services has made it easy for her to access help. “My life is better now; I know where to go in case of anything,” she says in a warm-spirited way with an infectious smile. “Sincerely, they have improved the services we receive. They have made it easy to access help, and a patient can’t suffer. If they didn’t have the skill they had, I would have died. They work as a team and are very friendly. I got a family with them.” She concludes by referring to the trained Emergency Care Professionals.

But not everyone in Uganda is as lucky as Jackeline. There is still a gap of over 450 emergency care professionals required to provide care to millions of Ugandans.