Athanase Karemangingo, a community health care worker in Kayonza district, says he monitors 105 households in his village of Karama, Nyamirama sector. With use of a mobile phone however, his work is twice as smooth and effective in terms of service delivery, something he says is improving the quality of care patients receive. “I remember a case when a patient called me late at night when she had complications with her pregnancy, I called the ambulance and she was helped instantly. I have not registered any mortality case from the households I monitor, I do follow ups using my phone and report instantly to the health centre in case of any issue,” said Karemangingo. A number of health workers have been availed with mobile phones that help run their daily work smoothly. Thanks to efforts by the Government in distributing these devices which have helped in reporting, data collection and monitoring. Karemangingo said access to mobile phones for health workers has eased their workload and spurred instant updates on medical situations of patients using rapid SMS. “There is a big difference; when reporting on stunting mainly, you have to take photos of the child as he graduates in stages during follow ups, when taking malaria rapid tests, phones have helped us with efficiency,” said Karemangingo. Being the first contact, especially for pregnant women, health workers say mobile phone penetration has also helped in reducing maternal mortality rates. The Ministry of Health highlights that health workers are the core component of the public health system, as they act as a liaison between communities and health care facilities. Speaking to The New Times, Denis Nkunda, a Community Health Workers’ Regulation Officer at the Ministry of Health, said there is a need to double efforts with mobile phone penetration to ensure all community health care workers have timely reporting, data accuracy and monitoring. “There is an upgrade from rapid SMS, to rapid PRO-where the alert danger sign can be sent by a health worker reaches servers at the health centre, district hospital and the ambulance section-mobile phones are always vital in this.” Nkunda added, “Before, a health care worker needed 14 black books for aggregated reporting. We are shifting from paper reporting and mobile phone penetration has helped us in data quality. Besides that, health workers have helped in reducing maternal and antenatal mortality rates.” Health care workers have however highlighted a few challenges where some have not received these devices, something they say is affectig their work. They also mentioned other setbacks such as lack of training, urging the ministry to address these issues. “I have not yet received a phone, they told us the distribution was hindered by Covid-19 impact, and we are missing out. Sometimes I have to travel long distances to deliver services,” said Vestine Nyiramana, a community health care worker in Kayonza. Nkunda said the ministry has enrolled a training program for health workers now reaching 4 districts, and will keep availing support to health workers. Currently, as figures indicate, there are 58,567 health care workers country wide, 68% women and 32% men. Phone penetration in the country as per Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) stands at 78.8% with approximately 9.5 million active subscribers
