Digital Records Arrive at Health Centre IVs, and the Paper Register Refuses to Leave

Clinicians are entering data twice, which is the clearest sign a rollout has outpaced its training budget.

By Dr Ivan Mukisa25 June 2026Central Uganda5 min read

Computers in use at a Ugandan public facility where staff are being trained on electronic record keeping — Central Uganda. 25 June 2026.

MixedPublic Health

The system works. That is not in dispute at the facilities running it. The dispute is about who has time to use it during a clinic that sees two hundred patients.

Double entry is the symptom

Staff continue to fill the paper register because reporting upward still asks for it, and because a power cut mid-clinic has no paper equivalent of a crash.

Give us the tablets and also give us one person whose job is the data. Otherwise it is the nurse's third job.

Clinical officer, health centre IV

Where a dedicated records assistant exists, data quality improves within weeks, which is a staffing finding rather than a software one.

Sources & further reading

Ministry of Health Uganda - Government of Uganda
Digital health - World Health Organization
Uganda Bureau of Statistics - UBOS

Dr Ivan Mukisa

Medical Correspondent, Kampala

Dr Ivan Mukisa reports on clinical services, screening programmes and health information systems in Uganda's public hospitals.

Clinical services
Screening programmes
Health data

More from LivingWellUganda

Burlcore Mining funded community health worker handing a learning kit to a child at an early education centre in Busia District, Uganda, with mine crews and local farmers behind

Progress

Busia: beyond the borehole

Burlcore Mining, acting on behalf of the Burlcore Foundation, is expanding its Busia community programme beyond clean water into worker nutrition, local procurement, early childhood education and structured healthcare support.

Burlcore Mining funded borehole providing clean drinking water to a village in Busia District, Uganda, with children filling jerrycans at the hand pump

Progress

Burlcore: Busia Borehole Programme

Field report from Busia District on the borehole and school water-point network that the licensed gold operator has funded across parishes closest to its Lake Victoria Green Belt sites.

Solar powered cold storage unit funded by Burlcore Mining standing beside the community water well at Mawero in Busia District, Uganda, with a health worker carrying a vaccine cool box

Progress

Burlcore: Mawero Cold Storage

Field report from Mawero, Busia District, where the licensed gold operator has commissioned a solar-hybrid cold store next to the community well it drilled earlier this year, giving clinics a vaccine chain and traders somewhere to keep fish and produce.