The components of an ICU ambulance for Lango Dr. Aceng commissioned

Lira I Lango Regional Health Assembly 2024, the sub-region’s first, is currently underway at the Margaritha Palace Hotel in Lira.

The two-day event brought together health experts and representatives from all of Lango’s local governments and cultural leaders, among others.

Under the theme “A Healthy Lango, Our Shared Role,” health officials are sharing information and resolutions that will provide Lango with a healthy future.

Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, Minister of Health, says it is the first time Lango has hosted a regional health assembly.

Aceng had earlier commissioned the first of its kind an ICU ambulance for Lango at Lira Regional Referral Hospital before officially launching the assembly.

Click here to watch the interior of the ambulance and what it has as explained.

Dr. Aceng stated that the Ministry will continue to train community health workers in all other districts, and that this will be facilitated.

As we celebrate the achievements, Dr. Aceng stated that the country is still not on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, and that Uganda still has what is pending – the Millennium Development Goals as we move towards Universal Health Coverage.

“It’s also imperative that we harness synergies of multisectoral collaborations in order to address the social determinants of health. Now, many at times people look at health in isolation.

“You will never be healthy if you don’t have clean water, you can not be heathy if you don’t have food. You will not be healthy if the roads are not functional because the roads are for transport, products for sale… so health is wealth but health is also politics.

“If you get health right, you have gotten everything else right, nobody will bother you, people are healthy. So, for those of you who are aspiring to be Presidents, I want to give you a secret: when you become a President get health right because if people are not healthy you will not sit on that chair.”

Because health is important, Dr. Aceng told the Assembly it is why the government has put it under capital development alongside gender, education and water.

“I also want to urge all of us to spread information and leverage on the Parish Development Model where government is proving lots of money – shs100m per parish. This is money that is meant to pull us out from poverty,” she added.

This story is being updated.