In a bid to reduce the number of patients hospitalised over different diseases, health experts have urged Ugandans to embrace regular medical checkups in order to detect diseases early to enable their quick treatment.
The National Medical Stores (NMS) General Manager, Mr Moses Kamabare, said the public should go for screening to prevent diseases in all ways that they can so that they take only those diseases which, despite their efforts are still occurring.
‘National Medical Stores is mandated to provide these medicines to the health facilities, but we believe that prevention is better than cure, so Ugandans should get interested in preventing the diseases,’ he said.
According to him, prevention includes screening for many types of cancers.
‘But when it is late, the chances of you getting treated are very low,’ Mr Kamabare made the remarks during the NMS’s Rotary club of Medical Stars medical outreach at the NMS Kajjansi Town Council facilities on Friday where up to 2,100 people received services that included, counselling, eye care, dental extractions, blood donation, HIV testing, prostrate cancer screening and reproductive health among other health services.
‘We want the people to experience what we expect them to get when they go to the government health facilities. People have come here, health workers are here to receive them and they have received the medicines free of charge’ he said.
He added, ‘They have got tooth extractions through the dental services, they have given blood, getting free eye treatment and free glasses, everything is free. This is how it is supposed to be in a government health facility. Wherever and whenever the youth go there, this is what they should expect’.
Ms Joyeuse Uwitonze, the Marie Stopes Uganda channel lead said families should always reach out to medical facilities for general checks in order to be aware of their health statuses.
‘We think that it’s important for everybody to have the awareness, information, to know when to seek health care, where to seek it from and what health care needs are handled by different providers,’ she said.
She added, ‘Our purpose at Marie Stopes is to really ensure that women are receiving family planning services and every family has a choice on how they handle their families when they have children and when they choose not to have children’.