Rosemary Byanyima, the Acting Executive Director of Mulago Hospital
Mulago National Referral Hospital has revealed that the cost of handling a single case of organ transplant at the hospital will likely cost Shs50M, and this cost doesn’t include the surgery care to be received.
The revelation was made by Rosemary Byanyima, the Acting Executive Director of Mulago Hospital while appearing before Parliament’s Health Committee where she indicated that the hospital has witnessed an increase in patients seeking for kidney failure services like dialysis, which is why Mulago will start with kidney organ transplant before focusing on other forms of transplants.
“We are doing a lot of specialized work and this money is helping us do all that. Next we want to embark on is organ transplant and for a patient, the estimated stay for two weeks will be about Shs50M and that is for preparation and surgery. But that doesn’t include care of the patient after transplant because there are also very high costs for maintaining the patient so that the patient doesn’t reject the organ transplanted,” explained Byanyima.
It should be recalled that in September 2022, Parliament passed into law The Uganda Human Organ Donation And Transplant Bill, 2021 making it the first time that Uganda is establishing a legal framework for the regulation of organ, cell and tissue donation and transplantation, with government arguing that the enactment of the law is intended to protect the dignity and identity of every person and guarantee, without discrimination, respect for his or her integrity and other rights and fundamental freedoms with regard to donation and transplantation of organs, tissues and cells of human origin.
The Ministry of Health while introducing the Bill before Parliament argued that Uganda does not have any law governing human organ donation and transplantation which is increasing becoming an area of health care used to cure non communicable diseases that are rising rapidly.
When the Ministry of Health tabled the legislation, they proposed to have Mulago National Referral Hospital designated as the pioneering transplant centre, but the proposal was rejected by Parliament arguing that the designation of Mulago National Hospital as the pioneer transplant centre may prevent other facilities that are ready for organ, tissue and cell harvesting and transplantation from commencing.
“The provision also presumes that Mulago meets all the standards and is ready for transplant activities,” read in part report from Health Committee.
Indeed, while appearing before Parliament, Byanyima admitted that the failure by Roko Construction Company to complete works for the renovation of Mulago National Hospital have stalled the start for organ transplant citing absence of requisite infrastructure and funds to kick start the exercise.
She said, “We want to start with renal transplant. The budget for specialized treatment still remains inadequate and according to our budget, about Shs100Bn will be optimal according to what we are getting now, we still have a deficit of 77%.”
Byanyima revealed that in the current 2022/2023 budget for Mulago Hospital, Shs13.71Bn was allocated for specialized medical supplies that are used for cases of organ transplant, yet the required budget is Shs100Bn.
According to the Uganda Medical Board, that convenes at least once a month to approve 2 to 4 people to travel abroad for treatment and these medical procedures roughly cost about US$25,000 about Shs94Million inclusive of travel and hotel fees abroad.
However, it has been reported that a number of other facilities in India and Turkey both in urban and rural areas carry out these procedures for about US$18,000 about Shs67m.
