Rakai district health authorities have suspended village health teams activities, pending fresh training for the teams.
The VHT operate in Kakuuto, Kacheera, Kyebe, Nangoma, Kooki County and Nangoma on L. Victoria.
Some of the health services offered by village health teams include immunization, health talks, drug supplies, first aid, and helping to deliver mothers in hard to reach areas because they have no drugs.
Sister Eve Kakembo the Rakai district Senior Nursing Officer says they have discovered that majority of the village health teams lack basic health knowledge about drugs and how to conduct health sensitizations.
Kakembo explains that majority of th cae village health teams cannot prescribe the drugs to patients. Kakembo says the district plans to conduct special training for all the village health teams mid February to equip them with basic knowledge before any other distribution is given to them.
She also says after training, all village health teams will be given uniforms to identify them from the general public because some unscrupulous people had taken advantage of lack of uniform for these VHTs to distribute fake drugs at a cost.
However, the suspension of the services of village health teams has left a huge gap in drug distribution in the district.
According to Francis Kitto, the VHT leader in Nabigasa Sub County, several patients who used to get drugs from his place have are now stranded with no medical services.
Kitto noted that they are not in position to assist patients with limited access to health centers.
Matia Lwanga, a resident of Nabigasa Sub County says the absence of village health team services means they can no longer get any medical services because hospitals like Kalisizo and Rakai are a distance away.
VHTs were formed to assist the limited number of health workers in the district. The ministry of health through the district health officials trained VHTs to assist patients in scattered and hard-to reach areas.
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