Although millions of Ugandans are in dire need of surgery, a total of 111 theatres at Health Center IVs have remained non-functional due to a lack of funds to operationalize them.

MPs were informed that a total of sh13.32b is required to functionalize 111 theatres at health centre IVs.

Presenting the Report of the Committee on the Ministerial Policy Statement and Budget Estimates for the Ministry of Health for the Financial Year 2022/2023, committee chairperson, Dr Charles Ayume said the money would be used to procure equipment and recruit staff to operate them.

“Equipping the theatres is expected to improve health service delivery in the district and also spare residents the hassle of moving long distances to access health services,” he said.

Ayume further noted that many health centre IVs in the country are non-functional, yet they are cheaper to construct and renovate.

“A health centre IV by all standards is a mini-hospital. Why don’t we as a House agree that as a matter of strategic direction, instead of spending US$8 million on one hospital, we spend it on 12 health centre IVs,” said Ayume.

He also made a case for the deployment of more doctors at health centre IVs to cater for the need of patients who access the facilities.

“The President will have to be guided on gravitating doctors to health centre IIIs because their services will most likely be put to waste. He has to do some surgery. We would rather have four doctors at a health centre IVs as opposed to only two,” Ayume added.

The Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among, who chaired the Wednesday, 20 April sitting, supported Ayume’s suggestion to operationalise health centre IVs in districts across the country.

“If we can have four doctors, a theatre and carry out operations at health centre IVs, we will be doing cost saving over having a hospital in every district,” said Among.

Health Minister Jane Aceng attributed the problems to budget cuts but said the issues will be addressed once the resources are available.