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The health ministry says it has halted organ transplant services in the country over absence of the Human Organ donation and transplant council.

Health minister Jane Ruth Aceng made the revelation on March 27, 2024, before Members of Parliament on the House health committee.

According to Aceng, the ministry needs sh5b to functionalise the human organ donation and transplant council, which will oversee transplant activities in hospitals.

She also informed MPs that many hospitals have reached out to the ministry and they are ready to start these activities but says that after the successful kidney transplant by Mulago Hospital in Kampala, they realised that these hospitals cannot continue without this council.

It should be remembered that Mulago National Referral Hospital informed Parliament that they have 10 patients who are waiting to have kidney transplant services at the facility following the first successful kidney transplant surgery in December last year.

Pay for intern doctors

Aceng has also revealed that they are seeking shillings 35.9 billion in the next financial year to pay 2,000 intern doctors that are expected to start their training in the next financial year saying that this is needed to avert industrial action from the interns.