Mulago Hospital Boss: We’ve Never Received COVID-19 Funds Yet Some Patients Want Only Chicken & Beef!

Mulago National Referral Hospital has revealed that it has never received a single penny from Government to manage COVID-19 patients despite Uganda confirming the outbreak of the deadly disease in March 2020.

Dr. Byarugaba Baterana (pictured), the Mulago Hospital, Executive Director made the revelation today while appearing before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) where hospital officials appeared to respond to the December 2019 audit queries raised by the Auditor General.

Commenting on how Mulago Hospital is handling COVID-19 Patients, Baterana said that there is no specific drug that is being used to treat COVID-19 patients, but each patient is handled on a case by case basis.

He added that despite the fact that the hospital is currently handling over 280 COVID-19 cases, this has taken a toll on the hospital’s budget because every patient requires eating, which has heightened the demand for consumables.

“The unfortunate thing is that Mulago hospital didn’t get funds to handle COVID-19 patients. So we are using funds for the financial year meant for all the patients. Remember that COVID-19 patients eat and drink much more in terms of food than the normal patients because these other patients are sick, have no appetite, but these (COVID-19 Patients) are normal people, have appetite, they need all the meals and are demanding food of their choice, they are demanding chapatti, rice, there are people who only want to eat chicken and beef, they want to eat pilau,” Baterana said.

He added that Mulago also has to cater for the health workers managing the COVID-19 patients, accommodate and feed them yet the same services have to be given to the over 280 patients.

“I didn’t see the money to Mulago hospital. Parliament didn’t appropriate any money to Mulago for COVID. We got consumables, we haven’t gotten any vehicle. What we got in terms of donations is matooke, milk, eggs, got 100 beds and mattresses. Maybe they are on the way coming, maybe they have been delayed,” he said.

He however said, the hospital has received some patients in ICU with two of them having lost their lives, but seven have since left ICU without any problem.

Auditor General, John Muwanga in his report accused Mulago hospital administration of hiding businesses operating within the hospital premises with the report highlighting that the Hospital Administration had 41 registered business ventures operating on Mulago Hospital land but a physical count during inspection of the premises revealed that there were 145 ventures operating on Mulago Hospital premises.

The Mulago hospital administration is said to have recorded cumulative outstanding commitment in respect of ‘Goods and services consumed’ under the Memorandum Statement of Outstanding Commitments at Shs3.869Bn instead of Shs4.077Bn. However, outstanding commitments of Shs5.752Bn that were reported by Mulago were not supported by any documentation, throwing doubts on their authenticity.

Mulago hospital management is said to have incurred Shs3.268Bn on items which do not reflect the nature of the expenditure as defined per Government Chart of Accounts, further raising questions on how the money was spent.

The auditors observed that whereas Mulago hospital had projected to collect revenue to a tune of Shs13Bn in 2018/19, only Shs3.948Bn was collected representing under performance of 69.6% of the target.

Mulago hospital in its 2018/2019 budget planned to receive Shs79.178Bn, but only Shs69.979Bn was warranted by the Ministry of Finance resulting into a budget shortfall of Shs9.198Bn. But out of the money the hospital received, Shs64.463Bn was spent by the entity resulting into unspent balance of Shs5.515Bn that was taken back to the consolidated Fund.

Mulago hospital reported domestic arrears totaling Shs5.752Bn which is an increase from Shs4.261Bn the hospital reported in 2018. Of these funds, electricity accounts for Shs3.851Bn, court awards Shs103.893Million

The report also noted that although doctors have warned on the harm of sleeping in houses with asbestos sheets 10 housing blocks with a total of 30 house units in the Mulago quarters occupied by senior members of staff, and 5 housing blocks along Owen road occupied by senior Doctors still had houses roofed with asbestos sheets.

Baterana told Parliament that most of the houses are in dire need of renovations, which activity has failed to take place because there is no space to relocate the affected staff. There was a proposal to the Ministry of Finance to bring on board a private investor to construct 1000 unit houses for Mulago staff within 10years.