Improving rural health services: The case of a family physician’s contribution at Aber Hospital, Northern Uganda

Abstract

Family physicians (FPs) provide quality comprehensive primary care services responsive to the needs of the people they are serving. In Uganda, FPs are still few with poor visibilityhence difficult to demonstrate their impact. This short report describes the contribution of aFP guided by the principles of family medicine to improving health care services to meet theneeds of a rural population in Northern Uganda. This was carried out through targetedcapacity building for teams within various hospital departments and the provision oftransformative leadership and management. Hospital laboratory and radiology departmentswere strengthened to provide the needed diagnostic services to the population and humanimmunodeficiency virus (HIV) care and tuberculosis screening were improved through theestablishment of community service centres together with strengthening communityoutreaches. The transformative leadership of the multidisciplinary team provided by the FPsignificantly improved the quantity and quality of health care services