Health Sector

Masindi district comprises of two counties that constitute the health sub-districts of Buruli and Bujenje respectively. It consists of one municipal council and 5 sub counties, 29 parishes and 312 villages. There are 40 health Units and two Non Governmental Organization (NGO) health centers. The doctor patient ratio which is at 1:83,550 is still low and calls for the recruitment of more medical practitioners.

Special health problems in Masindi include; river blindness, leprosy, iodine deficiency and the rise of HIV cases among the married couples among others. There are six doctors in total of whom four are employed by government while two are privately employed.

There are a total of 358 medial workers in the local government payroll of whom five are medical officers, 0 dental surgeons, 18 clinical officers, 118 nurses, 39 enrolled midwives, 3 public health dental officers, 8 laboratory technicians and 7 assistants, 0 dispensers’ and 72 nursing assistants.

The table below shows the various medical personnel ratio to population

The common services provided by the existing health services include: Curative services for common diseases, health education and promotion, specialized services such as eye care, dental, x-ray, scan and ultra sound among others.

Services offered by gynecologists are rare to come by.  The nearest referral hospital is Hoima hospital, which is 56kms away from Masindi hospital.

The table below shows the average distance to the nearest health facility per category.

Access to health service remains low in Masindi. The district is yet to achieve the government target of a health center in every parish.  However the existing facilities need extra improvement with the health status of the population rated as poor.  A high prevalence of infectious and communicable diseases and malnutrition among the general population especially in children under 5 contributes to a heavy burden of disease.