Mulago Hospital Executive Director (ED), Dr. Byaruhanga Baterana has appealed to the Parliamentary Committee on Health to rethink influencing the budget allocation to the country’s biggest referral hospital if it’s to meet the public expectation.
The ED was interfacing with the committee during a formal tour at Kawempe Hospital which is currently running as Mulago referral Hospital directorate of Obstetrics and gynaecology.
Byaruhanga noted that among the challenges Mulago Hospital is facing, is the inadequate budgetary allocation by the Ministry of Health and relevant authorities.
“The limited personnel is part of the game in the Health sector where health centres lack the required human resource for effective service delivery; I don’t have all the human resource that I require but I use the available human resource to do the work,” Byaruhanga responded to the queries over understaffing at the Kawempe facility.
Parliamentary committee on Health meeting Kawempe Hospital staff
On the inadequacy of drug supply, the ED noted, “Mulago Hospital receives medicine from the National Medical Store and what they give us is what we use, we are supposed to get what we call essential medicines.”
The ED noted that in most cases, due to the limited budget, the hospital has always opted to purchase medication that is hard to be accessed by patients.
“We always prioritize expensive medicines which are hard to be accessed by patients like the cesarean section Mama yellow kits which cost around Sh300, 000.”
“In nut shell, the budget we have is not enough and for Mulago to function as a super specialized hospital, we need Sh100bn for buying drugs and handisandries.”
Kawempe Hospital staff pose with Parliamentary committee on Health for a group photo
Byaruhanga noted that the hospital has for several years been receiving a fixed budget of Sh12.6bn which can’t satisfy the needs of a hospital that is accessed by everyone who requires specialized services.
On the extortion on money from patients, the ED noted that, “I can’t deny that patients are not asked for money neither can I confirm, I can only say that we need to work together to eliminate this vice.”
“The health monitoring unit has been on the fore front of fighting this and as Mulago Hospital we are also on the fore front, help us tell the patients to report anybody that has asked them for money without giving them a receipt, those are thieves, masqueraders who must be fought using the strongest force that is possible.”
“If I get any of them since they are criminals, they will be handled by police and if they are health workers, I will interdict them and subject them to Courts of law and hand them over to the monitoring unit to deal with them.”
“When we always get them, we hand them over to the monitoring unit in the meantime as they are produced in Court, we interdict them and when they lose the case we subject them to the Health Service Commission which dismisses them in the public interest.”