Kadaga calls for specialised health services decentralisation

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First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for East African Community (EAC) Affairs Rebecca Kadaga has called for the health ministry's impartiality while planning and distributing specialised services in the country.

Kadaga regrets that all the specialised facilities, such as the heart and cancer institutes, including the women’s specialised hospital, are in Kampala city, and it questions how someone from the regions of Karamoja or Kisoro travels all the way for dialysis services.

Kadaga says this was practical when Uganda’s population was eight million but with the current over 45 million, people coupled with struggling with traffic jam, there is a need to establish similar services at regional levels.

Kadaga made the call while commissioning two Jinja Regional Referral Hospital projects worth shillings 6.5 billion on October 8, 2024.

The projects, which include an oxygen plant, were constructed by the Uganda People’s Defence Forces engineering brigade at shillings 600 million while its installation consumed shillings 4.9 billion.

Kadaga flanked with Samuel Leed after unveiling the orthopedic ward named after him at Jinja Hospital on Tuesday. (Photo by Jackie Nambogga)

The plant, according to the health ministry commissioner in charge of infrastructure division Eng. George Otim would be able to serve not only Busoga but even beyond since it has the capacity to produce 3,000 cylinders of oxygen daily.

He said the equipment is Germany made and they expect it to serve up to 10 years if the hospital management sticks to its management guidelines such as cleaning, and dusting including keeping the premises clean and free from dampness.

“We don’t want to hear that Jinja plant is down and we need to organise another shillings five billion to come and re-install,” he said.

He said all 16 regional hospitals had been equipped with oxygen plants and that efforts are underway to ensure that it is piped across their intensive care units (ICU) and wards.

Kadaga also commissioned a shillings one billion Samuel Leeds orthopaedic ward constructed by UK-based Samuel Leed under their Samuel Leed Foundation.

She told the health ministry director in charge of curative services Dr Charles Olaro, who represented line minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, how this was not good saying if his bosses had attended she would have told them because they had been in the ministry for long.

The area legislator for Jinja city Southwest, Dr Timothy Batuwa, concurred with Kadaga revealing how Parliament allocated sh400m to Kiruddu aimed at empowering the regional staff with specialised skills such that at a future date, they would get dialysis services at regional levels so they advocated for equipment.

“We have a strategy of getting something in piecemeal, as government complains of [lack of] money, we start by empowering our staff which we are doing,” he said.

Meanwhile, Jinja Hospital director Dr Alfred Yayi hailed President Yoweri Museveni for allowing the hospital to leverage resources from both government and development partners to deliver quality services to the public.

He also commended the health ministry for the role played in attaining the two projects which he said would have a big impact on population health in the region.

Jinja Resident City Commissioner Richard Gulume thanked UPDF for professionalising the army with such fantastic civil works and encouraged the young learned people to join the army.