Following a 14-day retreat from 4 – 15 July 2022 at the Source of the Nile Hotel in Jinja to commence the mid-term review of the HIV response related National HMIS tools, Ministry of Health (MoH) organized a meeting to Integrate Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) service provision into HIV care tools from 7-19 November 2022. The first retreat was used as a platform to discuss and Incorporate reviews under HIV Testing Services (HTS), PMTCT/EID, Care and Treatment, Safe Male Circumcision (VMMC), Supply Chain management and Laboratory, GBV, KP/PP/PreP and Tuberculosis (TB). The NCDs tools integrated relate to Cervical Cancer, Hypertension, Diabetes and Mental Health (Alcohol and substance abuse; and anxiety and depression).
The second retreat was mainly to finalize the HIV response related HMIS tools, resolve outstanding and emerging issues and develop tools that will be shared for approval.
MoH is mandated to revise the National Health Management Information System (HMIS) tools every 5 years to conform to the revised WHO, and National Health policies. Through the mid-term review, HMIS tools are reviewed to ensure continued production of high-quality statistics that reflect the needs of the health sector that inform planning and decision making.
At the end of the retreat, a draft 1 version of the HIV HMIS tools with Integrated NCDs, COVID19 tracking and program reporting data elements in HMIS 105 (facility outpatients monthly report) and 106a (facility quarterly report) were finalized pending inputs from the various stakeholders.
Going forward, draft 1 will be completed and changes to the reporting data elements will be added to ensure that all HMIS tools have corresponding data sources.