The count of different EM-NCD present at each facility was highly skewed; scores clustered at 0, the lowest possible score, with a long tail towards 10, the highest possible score (Fig 1). Investigation, If the SARA is implemented as a census, then it can be used to calculate service availability. Writing – review & editing, Affiliation While the complete SARA dataset for Uganda includes 13 national and regional referral hospitals, we excluded these facilities from our analysis. We conducted a descriptive analysis of variations in facility readiness and the availability of services, contraceptive methods, trained staff, family planning guidelines, and basic health care equipment. Yes Details of the methodology can be found in the end section. Software, One possible explanation is that the supply routes running East-West are of higher quality than those running North-South. Conceptualization, Availability of EM-NCD had a mixed relationship to availability of care and counseling for HIV. here. If counseling and testing were not available, the facility was coded 0. Countries had overall low levels of all 6 tracer items (availability of family planning guidelines, staff trained in family planning, blood pressure apparatuses, combined oral contraceptive, injectable contraceptives, and male condoms on the day of the assessment), indicating low health system readiness. Resources, The presence of each medicine, equipment, or other supply was visually confirmed by the surveyor. Formal analysis, y5? h�bbd``b`�$瀈p �� $�\@KAb�@�+H� �3 �z �}H��101���100M���� � ��$ This is particularly important because medicines that are subsidized and dispensed free of charge in public facilities are only available at cost in private facilities. Citation: Armstrong-Hough M, Kishore SP, Byakika S, Mutungi G, Nunez-Smith M, Schwartz JI (2018) Disparities in availability of essential medicines to treat non-communicable diseases in Uganda: A Poisson analysis using the Service Availability and Readiness Assessment.

The least available medicine was the beclomethasone inhaler, which was only present at 3 of the 196 (1.5%) total facilities—and at only one (2.9%) of the facilities at which it was expected to be stocked. Beginning with a baseline model predicting NCD score by basic amenities domain score, we added independent variables hypothesized to associate with NCD score in a stepwise fashion. The HC-I level represents the community health worker program rather than facility-based services, and thus is not included in the SARA sampling. We then assigned each facility to a region according to its recorded district in the SARA dataset. Uganda - Uganda Services Availability and Readiness Assessment 2013, Summary report: key findings in figures Data analysis and report preparation commenced in It may not be surprising that facility type has a significant effect on predicted EM-NCD count. Ideally, SARA is conducted approximately three to five Similarly, the basic equipment domain score is a proportion on the list of basic equipment available at a given facility. Our findings support previous work that demonstrates that Ugandan health facilities are poorly prepared to address the growing burden of NCD. SARA relies on a rapid data collection and analysis methodology, and can be combined with a record review to assess data quality of the facility reporting system.