Mukono district council has approved a motion to establish a private wing at Mukono General Hospital with the aim of improving health service delivery. The Mukono District Health, Education, and Sports Committee Chairperson, Yashir Miiro Mpirinto tabled the motion to establish a private wing at Mukono General Hospital, saying it would help improve service delivery and to stamp out corruption from the facility.
In his motion, Miiro explained that his committee had established that some health workers at the facility were secretly approaching patients to pay for private medical services at the hospital, which prompted the committee to propose the establishment of a private wing. “Instead of tracking down the culprits we should just introduce a private wing and retain the local revenue to buy more medical supplies for the hospital,” he said.
The motion was seconded by Steven Muganzi Musoke, the Namataba Ward Councilor, and his Mpatta Ward counterpart, Emmanuel Mbonye. However, the Nakifuma- Nagalama Town Council, Benard Ssempaka opposed the motion, saying those seeking private medical services should go to private health facilities and leave the General hospital for the common man. Other councilors rejected his proposal, saying establishing a private wing at the facility could also help to solve the problem of limited medical supplies.
Ruben Ssenyonjo, the Mukono male youth councilor, said that the health sector is allocated little funding, which is slipt into various portions to take care of different things. He argued that the money generated from the private wing can help to buy more medical supplies for the general wing. “If we run out of medical supplies in the general wing we can use the money got from the private wing to procure these supplies,” he said.
Justine Nanfuka, another councilor also said that the establishment of the private wing could generate the district more local revenue. The Speaker of Mukono District, Hope Betty Nakasi, said that was a need to establish the private wing since some people are already paying bribes to get treatment.
“The private wing will help at fostering specialists at the hospital. Since people are already illegally paying to access medical services the hence need to legalize the wing,” she said.
Adding that “We are seeing that the central government is failing to look at every service it has to deliver. For example, we suffered a budget cut of 45% of the proposed work plan for this financial year and it is now two months since the hospital has no drugs, although there is staff ready to work.”
Mukono District Health Officer, Dr. Steven Mulindwa welcomed the proposal when contacted by our reporter on the move. He said the private wing will help reduce middlemen at the hospital.
“We have situations where health workers approach patients and direct them to private clinics for treatment, which we have discovered belong to them. The private wing will cater to those who want to pay without having to go to outside clinics, which are more expensive,” he said.
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