Health

KCHEF Health Program

Founded in 2002, the KCHEF Medical Center, (formerly the Bishop Masereka Medical Center) responds to the most pressing need of Kasese: to reduce the number of women who die in childbirth and to ensure that all children see their 5th birthday.

550 women per 100,000 births die every year in childbirth or due to preventable pregnancy‐related causes in Uganda.

The clinic meets the daily medical needs of at least 100 patients a day, most of them women and children.

76 newborns per 1000 births die in the first week of life.

137 children of every 1000 do not survive until their fifth birthday.

KCHEF Medical Center

With a highly qualified, locally-led medical team, KCHEF attends to up to 2000 patients every month, and treated over 45,000 people since 2012. With a focus on maternal-infant care, the clinic provides skilled assistance during childbirth, including surgical delivery and obstetric emergency care, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT), care for newborns (including premature and SGA infants), infant immunization, treatment for malaria, contraception, and HIV/AIDS testing, counseling and treatment, HIV prevention education in the community, and urgent care for all. KCHEF contains the only operating theatre in the area. KCHEF lab technicians deliver test results unavailable anywhere else in the region. The clinic includes an ultra sound scanner and radiology services. KCHEF is considered a center of excellence, providing the best care available in Kasese and regularly receiving referrals from other health facilities.

Making motherhood safer:

  • Reduces unnecessary loss of life
  • Protects the health of infants and children
  • Increases the likelihood that children will complete their education
  • Reduces the numbers of orphans, and attendant risks, including early pregnancy and HIV infection
  • Strengthens the economy of the community

The work of KCHEF pursues four of the eight UN Millennium Development Goals:

  • #4 Reduce child mortality
  • #5 Improve maternal health
  • #6 Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
  • #8 Global partnership for development

Impact since 2015

  • Served over 25,000 patients annually
  • Delivered over 300 babies annually
  • Immunized more than 4,000 children annually
  • Provided HIV counseling and testing to over 1,000 members of the community
  • Treated patients with various diagnoses, including typhoid fever, AIDS, hypertension in pregnancy, depression and anxiety, hepatitis B, alcohol and drug abuse, cardiac disease, rabies, epilepsy, and snakebites
  • Hosts at least one visiting specialist in diverse conditions in an annual health camp