Uganda’s health sector is opetaing at 64% capacity as the economy takes a downward trend.
Government has fallen short of raising Shs1.069Trn required to fund the sector fully.
The revealtion was made by Michael Bukenya, Chairperson Health Committee while appearing before Parliament’s Budget Committee to presnt the Health Committee report.
Bukenya said that the proposed budget for the Health Sector for 2021-22 amounts to Shs2.522Trn, translating into a decrease of Shs258.29bnfrom the 2021/22 approved level of Shs2.781bn and out of this, Shs1.402Trn is recurrent wage and non-wage while Shs1.120Trn is development.
A review of the Health Sector budget of 2021/22 has also revealed a funding gap of Shs1.069Trn representing 36%, which means that Government is only in position to fund 64% of the health sector budget.
The development shows the gloomy economic situation that has prompted Government to undertake some budget cuts to run the country that has been battered by the pandemic and grappling with skyrocketing public debt.
In the Monetary Policy Report for December 2020 released by Bank of Uganda, the Central Bank put Uganda’s total public debt at Shs63.3Trn.
The Central Bank noted that the provisional total public debt stock as at end October 2020 stood at Shs63.352Trn, corresponding to an increase of 13.8 percent from June 2020 compared to an increase of 3.9 percent over the same period the previous year.
Among the outstanding unfunded priorities include the Shs5.71Bn to Uganda Blood Transfusion Services to increase access and availability of blood with the Health Committee warning that the failure to provide the money would worsen the blood stock outs.
There is also the Shs1.40bn for the maintenance of oxygen plants under the regional referral hospitals. Also the Shs23Bn for rehabilitation of General Hospitals, Shs20Bn for construction of a home for Uganda Heart Institute, Shs55Bn to National Medical Stores for the procurement of HIV/AIDS and TB drugs and Shs70Bn for salary and accumulated arrears.
The Health Committee has also recommended for the allocation of Shs173bn needed in COVID response, with Bukenya arguing that the pandemic exerted pressure on the already challenged system with staffing, infrastructure and equipment.
Parliament revealed that agencies in the health sector haven’t put emphasis on prevention of the pandemic with only Shs1.5bn earmarked to fight the pandemic.
“However, there is a funding gap of Shs173bn required to finance COVID-19 response excluding cost of the vaccine to mitigate the dangers posed by the pandemic in 2021/22. Failure to prioritise and integrate COVID-19 in the routine health system which is very expensive to resuscitate,” Bukenya said.
However, the Health Committee has called Parliament to undertake a value for money audit for all the funds so far spent towards containment and management of COVID-19.
