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To resource all public health facilities in the country and make them safe, the Government needs a total shillings 656 billion, a new report has revealed.

The resources are needed to construct toilets and equip them with the basic facilities including running water.

This is after it was found out that only 30 per cent of facilities in the country have the required facilities such as toilets and medical waste management capacity.

As a result, some of the facilities have become traps for infections, making them unsafe for patients, said the report.

The findings of the report titled: Financing Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in health care facilities in Uganda were released on January 29 at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Kampala.

Focus of report

The report, which primarily focused on financing for WASH and medical waste management in public health facilities, was carried out by the Socio-Economic Data Centre with support from the health ministry and Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

(L-R) Bosco Okia Principal Health Inspector MOH, Carrie Ripkey Water Sanitation and Hygiene technical advisor with CDC Foundation and Narathius Asingwire MD Social-Economic Data Centre Ltd interact during the Dissemination Workshop for Findings from the Study of Financing Wash and Medical Waste Management in Public Health Services Facilities in Uganda on January 30, 2024. (All Photos by Godiver Asege)

WASH and medical waste management are typically financed by the Government and development partners.

New Vision Online has learnt that some of such partners, include the World Bank, African Development Bank, Kredianstalt fur Wiederaufau (KfW) bank and the European Union, European Investment Bank and International agencies.

The report noted that although, generally, the water coverage across the country has improved, sanitation and medical waste disposal services, on the other hand, have generally received less attention, which endangers thousands of patients across the country who visit them.

“Most development partners who are major financiers of the health sector budget do not finance operation and maintenance (O&M) in health care facilities because of their recurrent nature,” the report says.

The report adds that this means funding O&M and medical waste activities lies solely on the Government, which provides the funds through a Primary Health Care (PHC) grant.
However, these are not sufficient which has left many health centres in dire straits.

Prevention's gold

Narathius Asingwire, the research team leader, noted that most of the diseases and infections can be prevented and that if the Government were to do the prevention, it would end up saving a lot of resources which could be channelled into other productive sectors of government.

“That is the message we are giving government and donor partners: We need to increase funding for WASH and medical waste management in public health care facilities,” he said.

“We don’t want to see scenarios where people come to the facilities looking for curative services but end up in places where infections are not easily controlled,”  he added.

Uganda has about 6,949 public health facilities, of which 45 per cent are government-owned, 15 are private not for profit and 40 per cent are private profit according to records from the Ministry of Health.