Dr. Ruth Aceng , Minister of Health
The Minister of Health, Dr. Ruth Aceng has defended the need for Government’s proposal to borrow US$18.09Million (UGX65,923,578,000) from the African Development Fund to finance the expansion and equipping Uganda Cancer Institute saying this will improve cancer care in Uganda and help reduce the workload oncologists are grappling with.
Aceng made the remarks while appearing before Parliament’s National Economy Committee, revealing that the project is part of the three East Africa’s Centres of Excellence for Skills project in which Uganda was to lead in Oncology, while Tanzania and Kenya were to lead in Cardiology and mythology respectively, but Uganda’s project was hampered by effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, creating need for additional resources.
The Minister said, “The doctors are very few and overwhelmed with work. If you stepped inside Uganda Cancer Institute today, from the door way, corridors, even near the washrooms, there are patients. In other countries, they don’t work like that. You will have one doctor attending to 1 or 2 patients in a day, these ones see how many in a day? In huge numbers, anyone would get tired and not do exactly, what you would want to do. That is why we need to train as many (Oncologists) as possible, but also, we need to recruit them and also remunerate them better.”
While responding to concerns raised by MPs on the slow access to cancer care and overwhelming numbers of patients at the Institute, Dr. Aceng blamed this on the limited number of oncologists in Uganda, which she said has left the medics overwhelmed, creating the need to recruit, train and remunerate the oncologists better.
“It is very true we have the best doctors, and we should really be proud of them, Uganda Cancer Institute has been deliberately training more oncologists because we have very few compared to the population. The reason why our doctors may not do exactly what they do in other countries is the lack of equipment. Those people work on equipment, these ones use their brains to do things. That is why they are okay, you bring the equipment here and see, everybody will come here and equipment are very expensive, they become obsolete very fast because we aren’t the manufacturers,” said Minister Aceng.
Henry Musasizi, Minister of State for Finance while justifying the need for additional resources explained that the construction of the Centre was initially scheduled to take 24months, however, due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the contractors cash flow challenges, the implementation of the civil works activities delayed for 18months. The civil works contract therefore stretched to over 42 months and prices of materials and labour subsequently increased.
“The demand for cancer care is growing and this, coupled with inadequate infrastructure has incapacitated the Uganda Cancer Institute from providing effective service delivery to patients. The limited infrastructure at the Centre has resulted in congestion, more complications, more expensive alternatives, premature deaths and increased referrals abroad. Currently for example, the cumulative number of patients on the waiting list for nuclear medicines stands at over 500 adult patients. Expansion of treatment and care facilities is thus a priority for Government,” remarked Minister Musasizi.
He said that as a result of the challenges in implementing the original project, a financing gap of US$21.68Million was created thus the inability of the project to meet its development objectives without additional financing.
Nathan Nyanyima (Bukanga North) backed the proposal for additional financing although he noted that his approval is hinged on assurance that the new loan would ensure that Ugandans access Cancer care within the country and reduce on medical tourism.
“I happen to have one time had a problem, I was supposed to be operated here in Uganda, but I couldn’t. I went to America where I found cancer treatment centres and here we don’t even have any equipment that can test whether somebody has a cancer or not. I stand to be corrected. People have to go to Aga Khan Hospital to get a Pedi scan, I would like to see that a Pedi scan is installed in Mulago or any other place where people can go and be checked,” noted Byanyima.
Robert Migadde, Vice Chairperson, National Economy Committee stated, “Are we going to see an end to people going to other nations if we approve this loan? Because we have patients going to Aga Khan Hospital, now that we have East Africa with Kenya, Rwanda, are we going to see different patients coming here for the different services?”
The same sentiments were shared by Peggy Wako (National Female Elderly Rep) weighed in saying, “We have so many cases of cancer and those who are able, you see them going out of the country for treatment, so if we have such machines and those cases can be handled here, that will be my interest.”
