Government should invest more in Referral Hospitals FY 2013/14

Government should invest more in Referral Hospitals FY 2013/14

By Adellah Agaba

The National Health Policy is driven by the National Development Plan (NDP) which provides thematic areas of development including health, education, water and sanitation, agricultural production and human resources development and management.

The mission of the health sector is to attain a good standard of health for all people in Uganda. Sadly, geographical access to health care has been limited to about 49% of the population.

As a strategy to bring health services closer to the people, decentralization of health services was encouraged with an aim of taking services closer to the people and improve geographical access, particularly to the rural poor. The aim was further to lead to improved options for target group oriented health service delivery, and more transparency and accountability through closer responsibilities by the poor in rural areas.

However, the poor health facilities in health centres have left patients with no alternative but to go to referral hospitals leading to overcrowding and easy spread of disease. On a daily Mulago referral hospital among others receive an overwhelming number of patients’ per-day most of them from rural areas. This has taken a heavy toll on health service delivery at referral hospitals in Uganda. Any hospital, including a district hospital, will receive referrals from lower levels of care.  Referral hospitals come into play where health care providers at lower levels of the health system, lack the skills, the facilities, or both to manage a given clinical condition hence seek the assistance of providers at the referral hospitals.

Shockingly with the day to day increasing number of patients in the referral hospitals in Uganda, working conditions of health workers have become very difficult, characterized by poor infrastructure, lack of staff accommodation, inadequate equipment and supplies, work overload and inadequate remuneration. These poor working conditions do not attract staff nor motivate them to stay making it hard to have services adequately delivered to the intended beneficiaries in the hospitals.

It should be remembered that health is a key element of social and economic growth and its one of the major sectors that can directly impact on poverty eradication. With the budget for the health sector projected to rise from Ushs 852.2billion in FY 2012/13 to 940.4 billion in FY 2013/14, a lot of expectations from the citizens will have to be put into consideration. The health sector share proportion of the national budget is projected to decline from 7.8% in 2012/13 to 7.4% next financial year, and is far below the threshold of 15% agreed upon by African leaders in the Abuja declaration of 2001.

In Financial Year 2013/14, Government should invest more in referral hospitals and equip them with the basic drugs and facilities and ensure services are easily accessible to all citizens.