By Frank Kamuntu
Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja has disclosed that 82 districts in Uganda are without a single public general hospital, with an estimated UGX 6.743 trillion needed to bridge this gap.
Nabbanja made this admission during the Prime Minister’s question time at the Thursday plenary, responding to concerns raised by Andrew Ojok (Omoro County) regarding the government’s plans to upgrade Health Centre IVs to hospitals in districts lacking such facilities.
Nabbanja detailed the current healthcare infrastructure, noting the presence of 47 public general hospitals, 16 regional referral hospitals, 5 national referral hospitals, and 4 specialized national hospitals.
Despite the Presidential Strategic Guidelines and Directives of 2016, which mandate that each district should have a general hospital, the reality is stark, with 82 districts still underserved.”The estimated cost for constructing and equipping a national general hospital stands at UGX 70 billion.
To fully operationalize a general hospital, we need recurrent costs, including wages, non-wage recurrent expenses, medicines, and health supplies, totalling UGX 12.238 billion annually. The government plans to upgrade Health Centre IVs to General Hospitals in a phased approach, prioritizing districts with high populations or special geographical considerations, such as island districts,” Nabbanja explained.
The Prime Minister further highlighted a grimmer picture at lower health facility levels, revealing that 1,696 out of 2,184 sub-counties and town councils lack a Health Centre III. Although 31 new Health Centre IIIs are currently under construction under the UgIFT program, set for completion by FY2024/25, an additional 488 sub-counties remain without these critical facilities.
Nabbanja also introduced the Ministry of Health’s Draft National Health Policy, which proposes upgrading Health Centre IVs (24-bed capacity) to Community Hospitals (60-bed capacity) in a phased manner. Based on geographical access and population coverage, this initiative will prioritize existing Health Centre IVs with high catchment populations and the 135 constituencies without Health Centre IVs.
“The estimated cost for constructing a Community Hospital is UGX 12 billion, with an additional UGX 4 billion for equipping, bringing the total to UGX 16 billion. Fully operationalizing a Community Hospital requires recurrent costs, including wages, non-wage expenses, medicines, and health supplies, estimated at UGX 4.109 billion per annum,” Nabbanja detailed.
In response to another question from Ojok about the government’s efforts to combat malaria, particularly in Northern Uganda, Nabbanja admitted that Uganda is highly endemic for malaria, ranking 3rd globally in malaria burden and 8th in malaria-related deaths. She pointed out that regions like West Nile, Acholi, Lango, Teso, Busoga, and Bukedi have the highest transmission rates and urged lawmakers to promote the use of preventive tools, such as treated mosquito nets, among their constituents.
“We distributed 28 million mosquito nets in 2023. However, the 2023 Demographic Health Survey indicates that although net coverage exceeds 95%, actual usage by the population is only around 60%,” Nabbanja remarked.
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