ULONGWE HEALTH CENTRE
Ulongwe Health Centre is one of the oldest facility in Nzekokere diocese. It was established in 1970 and officially opened on 14th August the same year by Fr. Remigio Villa a Montfort missionary with an aim of providing basic medical services to the surrounding communities. Then the facility had OPD and Maternity infrastructure. In 2006, the guardian shelter and antenatal building was constructed with funding from Safe Motherhood.
LOCATION
It is located at Ulongwe along Zomba-Nzekokere road in T/A Kalembo`s Area. Its nearest health facilities are Kalembo and Nandumbo Health Centres
run by the government.
CATCHMENT AREA
Ulongwe Health Centre has a catchment area of 19,220. The furthest distance from the Health Centre is Chikolongo about 12 kilometers.
SERVICES
Ulongwe Health Centre has approximately 16 Beds in Maternity wing. The OPD does not admit or observe the Patients due to lack of Beds though the rooms are there. It provides a number of Health and Medical services on both inpatients and outpatients basis.
Dispensary Room
· Out Patient department (OPD)
· Antenatal care
· Labour and delivering
· Post Natal Care
· Under Five Child Clinic
· Supplementary Feeding Programme (SFP) and Outpatient Therapeutic Programme (OTP)
· HIV Testing Services
· Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) clinic
· Sexually transmitted infections (STI) clinic
· Youth Friendly services.
Some of the Staff at Ulongwe Catholic Health Centre
Nurse In charge: Francisca Kazembe
Clerical Officer: Patrick Kantande
Pharmacy Attendant: Nedson Joseph
There are also two other Nurse Midwife Technicians and one community Health Nurse.
The rest of the staff includes:
· 4 Homecraft workers
· 1 driver
· 10 Patient attendants
· 1 Cashier
· 5 Security Guards
· 2 Ground Labourers
· 1 Pharmacy Attendant
· Laboratory Assistant
· 1 Clerical Officer
· 1 Accounts Assistant
· 9 Health Surveillance Assistants
· 4 Health Workers
· 3 HIV Testing and counseling Counselors
The total number of staff therefore is 49.
TRANSPORT
The facility has no any means of transport, it has an old Ambulance which is now beyond repair.
For referrals, the facility borrows cars from the Parish Priests.
HOUSING
Ulongwe Health Centre has a housing problem. There are only 6 houses meaning that most of the staff members live outside the compass. Besides that, the houses are old and dilapidated. In addition to this, the houses are small hence can not accommodate big families.
