On 4 November 2004, we inaugurated the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Gulu in Northern Uganda. In the region, ravaged by a horrific war, some 6 million Ugandans resided, poorly served by around 20 doctors.
From 2004 to 2010, 30 lecturers from the Federico II Faculty of Medicine voluntarily carried out training placements at the newly established Faculty of Medicine in Gulu, doing compact courses. Twelve Ugandan lecturers were trained in various disciplines and the structure was built with a counterpart fund from the Italian Cooperation. The city of Naples doubled this fund with spontaneous contributions.
Since 2010, 870 young Ugandan doctors have graduated and are now working in all 40 districts of Uganda. The Faculty of Gulu, sister of the Federico II, has made and continues to make a substantial contribution to the care of the Ugandan people, with particular attention to Mothers and Children.
THE STORY OF SOME 2010-11 GRADUATES ‘PIONEERS’ OF GULU-NAP
- Dr. Venice Omona is head of paediatrics at ‘St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor’ with 200 beds and a children’s cancer ward. Since November 2023, he has opened a new Neonatology and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and is currently, for 4 months, a guest of the Federico II at the NICU of Prof. Francesco Raimondi to perfect his skills in this area.
- Dr. Sylvester Ndsambiya is the leading Orthopaedic Surgeon in Northern Uganda and performs about 1850 major operations a year at St. Mary’s Hospita in Lacor (he also trained in Bolzano for 4 months).
- Dr. Godfrey Smart is Surgeon and General Director of the Ambrosoli Hospital in Kalongo, which serves a vast peripheral poor region and has inaugurated, with the Ambrosoli Foundation, a New Paediatric Hospital with 80 beds and a neonatology unit
- Dr. Okello Bosko Otuu, a specialist in Gynaecology-Obstetrics, has opened a Maternity and Health Centre in the city of Kitgum, where several hundred women give birth. Since 2020, with the support of the Naples INFANZIA ONLUS Association, he has built a building with 9 classrooms for a Midwives School with 60 pupils/year, in an area where Maternal Mortality is about 100 times higher than in Italy.
- The two hospitals in Northern Uganda (St. Mary’s Lacor and Ambrosoli Kalongo) have participated for 3 years in a project, encouraged by the Italian Cooperation, of Results Based Financing, through which the hospital staff receive a significant economic bonus every 3 months based on the quality scores achieved every 3 months, assessed by an external commission. Prof. Luigi Greco developed the objectives to be achieved together with the staff. In the three-year period 2018-2020, the quality level of services rendered to patients increased from the initial 40-50% of the target to 87-92% of the target in the areas of structure, management, diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities. Four years after the end of the initial project, we verified in February 2024 that the performance level remained high (88-95%) in all areas assessed. Ugandan GULU-NAP students and Italian trainees had and still have an important role in promoting quality of service objectives. Quality of service that in a ward where 2-3 children die every day, means, not infrequently, the difference between life and death.
- Five Simple Actions to Reduce Maternal Mortality: In Uganda, the maternal mortality rate is about 100 higher than in our world (350/100,000), worsened with the closure of transport due to the pandemic:
- 4 breaks for Safe Childbirth WHO (3)
- Reducing Vitamin D 25 insufficiency in pregnant women (4)
- Prevent puerperal sepsis with an injection of azithromycin (5,6), adopt tranexamic acid to reduce bleeding. (7)
- Facilitate early referral and management by estimating at first contact with the mother the risk of an unfavourable outcome (8)
- Facilitate vaginal delivery by considering the ODON delivery device (9,10,11). Apply Ellavi Baloon to manage postpartum haemorrhage (12).
GULU-NAP 20 YEARS LATER !!! Your contribution has not gone in vain.
Photo gallery
Result Based Financing, a change engine for paediatric