Private Health Practitioners in Uganda Aim to Gain Business Skills

More than 100 Ugandan doctors, midwives, and dentists in private practice learned about access to financing to expand their capacity to deliver high quality health services at a seminar cosponsored by the USAID-funded Partners for Health Reformplus (PHRplus) Uganda and Banking on Health (BoH)projects. While most of the participants came from Kampala, a few traveled from other districts as far away as Jinja, Mbarara, and Mbale. Attendees heard about the seminar on a local radio talk show, through radio announcements, from SMS messages sent to the mobile phones of members of the Uganda Private Medical Practitioners Association (UPMPA) and the Uganda Private Midwives Association (UPMA), and by word of mouth.

Seminar presentations outlined the types of financing: leases, loans and equity. Stanbic Bank, Uganda Microfinance Union, and DFCU Bank presented their respective financial products and explained to the audience the process and requirements to access financing. A doctor and a midwife gave testimonials on their own experiences, illustrating how each used financing in conjunction with newly acquired business management skills to expand his or her practice.

A questionnaire completed by attendees indicates that more than half are interested in accessing financing to acquire medical equipment, renovate or expand existing premises, or even to establish larger facilities such as hospitals. Almost all participants expressed interested in building their business management and entrepreneurship skills. PHRplus and BoH are working with Enterprise Uganda, a local training institution, UPMPA and UPMA to institutionalize training in business skills for health providers in private practice. The seminar and training are initiatives that should assist private providers to grow their practices and expand their capacity to deliver high quality health services.