Members of the parliamentary health committee have today visited Mulago national referral hospital- Kawempe to assess how the hospital is operating.
The hospital deals with patients who have issues of Gynecology and Obstetrics.
Speaking to the press during the visit, Dr. Byarugaba Baterana, the Mulago Hospital, Executive Director said the hospital has 170 beds.
“I believe that with fairness, that this hospital will accommodate up to between 250 to 300 when it is fully complete.
He also made it clear those patients who want private treatment pay, just like in other hospitals.
“The policy of Mulago hospital is that those who want private patient services will pay for them. It is known by everybody, it’s a government policy. But ordinary patients are not supposed to pay. Should anybody ask them to pay, then that person will have stolen that money” says Baterana.
He adds that doctors who ask people for money at Mulago do not offer receipts in return since it is against the laws.
Dr. Michael Bukenya, who led the parliament’s team said they were assessing the conditions under which the hospital was operating, to see how the hospital is coping in a borrowed site and to understand the challenges being faced by the hospital.
According to Dr. Bukenya, they will discuss the challenges observed during today’s visit especially those concerning maternal health and come up with solutions to help the facility.
“You know that maternal mortality is one of the indicators of health that has persistently remained bad in this country. That is why the first institution we have toured is one of maternal health.”
After the tour, MPs found out problems of overwhelming numbers of patients which has resulted into drug shortage. Dr. Bukenya however says the main issue that came out is that peripheral health units in this country are not functioning well due to lack of supervision from the relevant authorities (ministries of local government and health).
“As parliament, apart from appropriation of resources. We are supposed to monitor the performance of these ministries and health units and make sure they are functioning as required.”
He added; “So we are arranging as parliament to summon the minister of local government and his team and the minister of health with the team to give us their work plan of supervision of peripheral units in this country which we would call primary health units. That is the district hospital, health center IIIs and health center IVs and health center IIs.”
