Members of Parliament on the Public Accounts Committee have expressed concern over the charges imposed on patients at Mulago Specialised Women and Neonatal Hospital, despite the facility receiving a substantial annual budget from the government.
The hospital collects a mere Shs7Bn in revenue annually, a fraction of its Shs31Bn annual budget from the government.
The issue came to light when Muwanga Kivumbi, MP for Butambala County, requested a breakdown of the costs charged to patients.
He questioned whether the revenue collected from patients was justified, considering Ugandans are also servicing a US$34.14 Million (Shs129.220Bn) loan acquired from the Islamic Development Bank for the hospital’s construction.
Administrators of Mulago Specialised Women & Neonatal Hospital, women who have normal delivery on the Gold card are charged Shs1M, while normal delivery under Platinum is Shs2.5M, C-Section under silver is Shs1.3M, while holders of the gold card that undergo C-section are charged Shs2.5M, while patients on gold card are charged Shs2.5M, while the VIP platinum cost Shs4M for patients who have C-section.
Upon receiving the rates, Muwanga wondered what would happen if Government instead boosted the Hospital’s budget by the amount of revenue collections and have Ugandans complete the payment of the loan used to build the hospital.
“A facility that charges this much also continues to encroach on the public purse and it is highly subsidized by Government and when you look at the trend of your NTR, it is about Shs7Bn a year would that justify why we shouldn’t find the money as Government top up for what they could have lost in NTR. With all the ambiance you have and everything, the revenue is nowhere, it is very low. If we allocated you additional Shs7Bn and told you from today onwards offer free services, will that be fine with this entity?” noted Muwanga.
In response, Dr. Evelyn Nabunya, Executive Director at Mulago Specialised Women and Neonatal Hospital, explained that the decision to charge patients was made by Cabinet.
She clarified that a team of Cabinet members visited the hospital to determine why patients should pay and guided the team on setting charges. Additionally, Cabinet established a Waiver Committee to assist Ugandans who cannot afford the hospital’s rates.
“The decision to charge for services came from Cabinet, and they guided us on how to set these charges. They also established a Waiver Committee to enable Ugandans who can’t afford the services to access them,” said Nabunya.