The Health Center St. John

St. John XXIII Health Centre III Gayaza, Uganda

The health center is located around 17 kilometers north of the capital Kampala. It belongs to the Catholic Church, the archdiocese Kampala. The Health Center is an independent center and the priest of Gayaza serves as its director.

Every day the center cares for around 20 to 40 patients. Diseases and illnesses that are being treated here are for instance: Malaria, pneumonia, high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, typhus, bacterial infections of any kind (such as urinary tract infections) as well as wounds and patients who have been in accidents (such as road accidents).

Every Wednesday there is a free vaccination event for all mothers and children. The health center offers and conducts vaccinations against polio, diphtheria, measles, and typhus.

The health center offers the following additional services:

• Laboratory analysis
• Free immunizations
• Ambulatory care
• Small surgical procedures
• Delivering babies / birth
• Ultrasound examinations
• Consultations
• Stationary care
• Examinations during pregnancy
• Follow-up care after giving birth for mothers and the newborn

The health center is financing itself exclusively by selling medicine. Unfortunately, not all patients can afford medical care, as there are no health insurances in Uganda and everything has privately to be paid for in cash. For this reason, some patients receive a “credit,” so that they can pay of their medicine in different installments. It can take some time until the debt is repaid. During the waiting time the center is lacking this money and cannot buy new medicine. This is the reason why it can occur that the center does not have all the different medicine in stock and cannot care for its patients in an optimal way. Often the center only purchases the most needed and most important medicine such as painkillers, antibiotics, medicine against malaria, and fluids for injections. So, there might be no money left to buy insulin or better painkillers.

With the help of donations we hope to change this situation.

The center employs, among others, two doctors, two midwives, two nurses, two medical assistants, a chef, a cleaner, a bookkeeper, an assistant to take care of janitor duties, a guard, a receptionist, a nun as an admin. There are also two laboratory assistants at the center. Moreover, a specially trained woman is on call for 24 hours a day to conduct ultrasound examinations.