The entrance to St. Joseph’s Hospital Maracha. Courtesy photo

The Medical SuperintendentSt. Joseph’s Hospital Maracha, Dr. Jacob Kevio has commended government for this significant contribution to enabling the hospital offer services to the people of Maracha District at a reduced cost.

“Annually we have a budget of UGX 2.6 billion recurrent however up to UGX I billion comes from the government that should come very clearly.

It comes in three forms, the central government gives us PHC (Primary Health Care) in two forms: drugs and money, funds up to UGX 5OO million, the district of Maracha also gives us money in form of human resource, we have staff about 17 whose salary if you calculate comes to about UGX 400 million in a year,” he remarked during the district level Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response (MPDSR) committee meeting on Friday, January 30.

Dr.  Kevio hailed the private public partnership between government andSt. Joseph’s Hospital Maracha as a strong cornerstone in boosting operational efficiency at the facility. 

“If this contribution was not there do you think we would survive? I want to thank government for this opportunity to allow us to survive, the reason is because of the private public partnership well documented here in Maracha,” he said.

St. Joseph's Hospital Maracha was established in 1952, as an aid post. In 1953 is converted to a dispensary, and later a maternity centre, operated by the Comboni Missionary Sisters. The institution became a fully-fledged hospital in 1972. The hospital was handed over to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arua, in 1985.

Dr. Kevio joined other leaders in committing to make the district a safe haven for child delivery. The statistics for between July –December 2025 revealed the district lost a mother in November and 53 babies in the same period.  

He appealed for the improvement in the quality of antenatal checkups observing that many medical staff in the lower health units ignore screening expectant mothers for preeclampsia (high blood pressure in pregnancy) which causes complications.   

“It is becoming very common of late and anybody can present, our mother who died in November was because of preeclampsia which was initially missed, what the hospital was managing was complications of preeclampsia one of them was bleeding.

It is missed in health centers, there is constant blood pressure in antennal. People just copy and paste, the mother had this blood pressure last week, they just copy and paste, from nowhere they pressure is suddenly very high, now the mother comes with complications,” he submitted.

Dr. Kevio decried the big number of expectant mothers losing their uterus which he largely attributed to teenage pregnancy.

The In-charge of Maracha Health Centre IV, Dr. Francis Arije said most of the hardships expectant mothers face are majorly related to the breakdown in families.

“some of them as they are entering they deliver but labor cannot come like, labor comes early but when you go down to the communities they explain to me the challenge is support, there is no support, if there is no support nutrition is even poor, the mother has not strength to push,”  he said.  

Assistant Maracha District Health Officer-Environment Health, Mr. Russall Jurua appealed to midwives to voice their work needs for them to be captured in the health units work plans by their respective in-charges.  

“It comes without their views that is the complaint, the midwives think   by not talking they think they are the best people that is what I have observed with the midwives,” he told the gathering.

Maracha Deputy Resident District Commissioner Ms. Monica Kotevu appreciated the midwives for the role they play in supporting safe maternal health but also urged them to be open to feedback from stakeholders. 

 “You are the people who hold the line, we cannot underscore what you do. The purpose of this meeting is not to quarrel but to evaluate our performance,” she advised.