Government Needs Shs 6.7 Trillion to Build General Hospitals in 82 Districts Without Them

Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja has revealed that the government needs over shs 6.7 trillion to construct general hospitals in districts without them.

She made this announcement during plenary on Thursday afternoon after she was tasked by MPs. The MPs wondered how, up to now, 82 districts do not have a single public general hospital. Seeing as there are 135 districts in the country, this number accounts for over 61% of districts without general hospitals.

Omoro County’s Andrew Oulanyah called upon the government to upgrade Health Centre IVs to hospitals in districts that don’t have hospitals. “

The government’s current priority is to increase access to Universal Healthcare. This is by improving primary health care access at health center 3s and 4s.

According to the Prime Minister, the country has only 47 public general hospitals. Similarly, there are 16 regional referral hospitals, 5 national referral hospitals, and 4 specialized national hospitals. The numbers get worse for lower health facilities. Out of 2,184 sub-counties and town councils, only 1,696 have health center IIIs.

The Prime Minister also confirmed the government’s plans to upgrade Health Centre IVs to general hospitals. She said this would start with districts that have high populations. She also added that since 2018, 381 health center IIs have been upgraded to health center IIIs.

The Prime Minister also echoed the government’s prioritization of disease prevention. She noted that 70% of diseases the population faces can be prevented. It is with this basis that she asked MPs to keep spreading the government’s message about prevention. She particularly specified prevention methods for diseases like malaria.

“We have challenges with the use of preventive tools by the population. Our main preventive tool is the treated mosquito net. We distributed 28 million nets in 2023. However, the demographic health survey report of 2023 indicates that though net coverage is more than 95%, net use by the population is only approximately 60%.” remarked Nabbanja.