Mulago National Referral Hospital belongs to all Ugandans

The new Mulago Hospital was built by the British government just before independence and handed over to Uganda as a ‘gift’. It was not actually a gift since it was built using money belonging to Ugandans but kept by Britain as part of the coffee price stabilisation fund set up to ensure that coffee farmers did not suffer any losses in income due to volatility of coffee prices on the world market.
Farmers were paid fix prices which were far below the international market prices, leaving the balance to help run the protectorate while a portion went to the price stabilisation fund mentioned above.
The other reason why farmers were paid less than the prevailing market prices was because of the perceived low “absorption capacity’’ of the peasants. The British believed that pumping too much money in the hands of people whose tastes and needs were considered to be ‘rudimentary’ would tempt them to over indulge in alcohol and other vices and make them lazy and unproductive. Both assumptions have questionable validity, but in the end it was colonial administration.
Mulago hospital like many other institutions in Uganda such as the Uganda Development Bank, were hence built from the sweat of the peasants. Mulago hospital, once the best national referral hospital in the region, was allowed to waste away into dilapidation, especially in the last 20 years. Its recent renovation using a loan of $28 million from the African Development Bank plus funds from other sources has gotten high ranking officials in the Ministry of Health and Mulago hospital excited. They are now telling Ugandans that Mulago will be run as a private self-accounting institution and patients will be required to pay! In other words, the vast majority of Ugandans would be locked out. I applaud the Speaker of Parliament, Ms Rebecca Kadaga, for vowing to have this proposal rejected by Parliament.
The government of Uganda did not borrow money from ADB to build a private hospital for the rich but to renovate and equip a national referral hospital, the only one in the country. This loan as far as I know, will be repaid by Ugandan taxpayers, irrespective of their standing in society and not by the administrators of Mulago from payments made by patients.
We understand Uganda spends $150m per annum on medical treatment abroad for a privileged few, which can now be channelled to Mulago. I am sure, using that money, Mulago will treat many more patients than the few who have accessed it in the past. Besides, a lot of Ugandans pay for their treatment abroad and these too will not need to fly out of the country anymore, making another $200 million or so available to Mulago.
The congestion in Mulago over the years was a direct result of the collapse of the district referral hospitals, which were built during the first post-independence government due to negligence and failure to fully operationalise the health centres built by the current government.
The officials at the Ministry of Health should concern themselves with the full rehabilitation of all these medical facilities and make them fully functional. The Ministry of Health should not abdicate from its responsibility to all the people of Uganda.
It is also possible, as was the case in the past, to have a private wing at Mulago for paying patients and another for the masses. It is also possible to sensitise the public that they will be required to make a monetary contribution for their treatment at Mulago.
Better still, the Ministry of Health should be at the forefront of championing the need for a national medical insurance policy for all Ugandans. All employers should be made to provide health insurance covers for their employees and the government should devise a scheme for the others not in formal employment.
Kenya, for instance, has implemented an insurance scheme, which is spreading across the country. If you go to a hospital in Nairobi, for instance, the first thing they ask for is your medical insurance card. Why are we always lagging behind?

Mr Naggaga is an economist, administrator and retired Ambassador.