Uganda launches new initiative to strengthen emergency care and save lives

Every day across Uganda, health workers face life-or-death emergencies: a child struggling to breathe from severe pneumonia, a mother experiencing postpartum haemorrhage, a victim of a road traffic crash, or a patient arriving with severe asthma or diabetic complications. In many of these situations, survival depends on what happens in the first few minutes of care. Recognizing the urgent need to improve emergency care, the Ministry of Health, with technical and financial support from the World Health Organization (WHO), WHO Foundation Laerdal Foundation and partners, [IS1.1][KK1.2]has launched the Acute Care Transformation through Basic Emergency Care (ACTxBEC) Initiative, a nationwide effort aimed at strengthening frontline emergency care services and reducing avoidable deaths. The initiative seeks to improve the ability of health workers to recognize, assess and manage life-threatening conditions quickly and effectively, while strengthening the systems that support emergency care across Uganda. Why emergency care matters Uganda faces a growing burden of acute illnesses and injuries. More than half of the 855.6 emergency cases per 100,000 population recorded in the 2024/25 financ