President Yoweri Tibuhaburwa Museveni will today commission the newly refurbished and expanded Yumbe Regional Referral Hospital and commission the Yumbe fruit factory as part of the activities on his visit to the District.
Museveni who is also the Presidential flag bearer for the National Resistance Movement has always reminded Ugandans of his personal commitment and that of his party towards maintaining good health for all Ugandans and doing all it takes to keep Ugandans safe.
The Yumbe Regional Referral Hospital that will be commissioned today was upgraded from a General Hospital to a Regional Referral Hospital in December 2020 to decongest Arua Regional Referral Hospital in Westnile by handling referrals from Lamwo, Moyo, Obongi, Yumbe, Koboko and others in Acholi.
The expansion, according to Ministry of Health officials was guided by the Health Sector Strategic Plan II that advances accessibility to health facilities to a distance of within 5 kilometers especially in the hard-to-reach areas in order to reduce disparity in access between districts and regions.
Still on the government’s efforts to make sure that Ugandans can access health care at the shortest distance from their places of abode, the government is progressing well on the plans of having a Health Centre III in every sub county countrywide.
“So far, in the financial year 2019/20, 191 Health Centre II’s have been upgraded to HC III’s, another 105 HC II’s are being upgraded to HC III’s in the financial year 2020/21.
Officials in the Ministry of Health further revealed that there is a plan to upgrade 35 Health Centre II’s into HC III’s bringing the total to 331 Health Centre IIIs countrywide.
Fruit Factory.
Museveni will also commission the 6 metric ton per hour Yumbe fruit factory, a value addition initiative by Government to increase sustainable production, productivity and value addition in key growth opportunities.
The factory is designed based on the local mangoes grown in the West Nile region and will be a ready market for the farmers with some companies already making offers to buy mango pulp that will be produced by the factory.
