9th National Quality Improvement Conference

Theme: Supervision, monitoring, coaching & mentorship for a resilient health system – the role of Quality Improvement

The Ministry of Health organized the annual National Healthcare Quality Improvement (QI) conference held on 13 – 15 December 2022 at the Speke Resort Munyonyo.

The objectives of the conference included sharing new QI innovations in the management and delivery of health services, mobilizing, and advocating for support, resources from leaders and financing actors towards improvement of the quality of health care and to highlight policy issues and ideas for building resilient and sustainable delivery of quality health care. The conference was used to launch the online Ql materials and training guide.

The conference brought together researchers, practitioners, health services managers, policy makers and academia to take stock of what is needed and been done to improve health care in Uganda. Efforts under Quality Improvement nationwide are showcasing at the conference

METS facilitated the conference package and made several contributions; Dr. Alice Namale sat on the plenary on how Implementing Partners are impacting QI implementation at delivery level, Evelyn Akello is chaired mid-morning session on improved service delivery, Dr. Simon Muhumuza presented on improving client satisfaction in Uganda’s health sector, Julius Sendiwala made a presentation on Quality Improvement of PMTCT and EID services in health Centre II countrywide and Wilfred Soyeko presented on mothers’ experiences of receiving male midwives during birth.

The conference ended with several recommendations among them;

1. the CQI database to be rolled out through trainings starting in January 2023
2. Low participation of DHOs and RRH directors was noted, and targeted invitations were to be shared for the next conference to capture their input and opinions.
3. There was suboptimal guidance on the regional referral strategy to the …
4. Regional performance reviews are not conducted regularly, and these are to be done in all 16 RRH zones on a quarterly basis.
5. There was no consolidated regional support workplans and this is to be developed by the RRHs
6. Inadequate use of QI data and there is need to develop QI data management guidelines by METS and SCAAP
7. Poor dissemination of QI interventions and this

The conference was officially opened by Hon. Hanifah Kawooya, the state minister for Health General Duties and she cautioned health workers to have a clean conscience while executing their duties and emphasized the need for more efforts in Infection, Prevention and Control. The Director General, Dr. Henry Mwebesa warned workers about absenteeism and called on the health facility leadership to make regular supervisory visits to their health centers.

The closing ceremony of the 9^th QI Conference was graced by the Minister’s representative and State Minister for Primary Health care, Margaret Muhanga; PEPFAR country coordinator, Mary Borgman; CDC Uganda deputy Director, Jessica Conley; and Director General representative and Director Curative Services, Dr. Charles Olaro.