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15 regional hospitals lack CT scan services
Radiologists examine a patient using a CT scan machine at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital on February 15, 2018. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- CT scans detect bone and joint problems such as complex bone fractures and tumors. If you have a condition such as cancer, heart disease, emphysema, or liver masses, CT scans spot it or help doctors see any changes.
Only one of the 16 regional referral hospitals in Uganda offers Computed Tomography (CT) scan services, a senior government official has revealed.
The commissioner for clinical health services in the Health ministry, Dr Ronnie Bahantugire, said it is only Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital and six national referral hospitals that are offering this life saving service.
Dr Bahantugire made the revelation while officiating at the launch of a CT scan machine for C-Care- International Hospital Kampala last Friday.
The 2017/2018 Uganda Annual Health Sector Performance report indicates that there were 27 CT scans in the country of which 13 were distributed in Kampala in private health facilities.
CT scans detect bone and joint problems such as complex bone fractures and tumors. If you have a condition such as cancer, heart disease, emphysema, or liver masses, CT scans spot it or help doctors see any changes.
Dr Bahantugire attributes the inadequate distribution of CT scan services in public facilities to the limited number of trained radiology technologists.
“At the regional referral hospital human resources structure, they did not have the category of radiologists to run the CT scan. Now that the human resources have been improved, there will be a radiologist stationed at each regional referral hospitals where they will be able to exhaustively provide services at that level,” he said.
The Ministry of Health records indicate that the country only has 48 radiologists to serve 40 million Ugandans, of which 11 of them have retired.
Analysts say effective service delivery has been crippled by medical brain drain, where Uganda continues to lose its best medics to other countries in search for greener pastures.
However, with the recently enhanced salary structure for scientists, there is hope that scientists will be motivated.
Dr Bahantugire is optimistic that by the end of the year, the number of regional referral hospitals offering CT scan services would have increased from one to 16 facilities.
Speaking at the same function, the Chief Executive Officer of C-Care group, Mr Sukhmeet Sandhu, said the newly acquired CT machine would help the hospital streamline and improve the capacity for diagnosis and treatment.
The General Manager of C-Care IHK, Dr Miriam Mutero, said effective treatment begins with accurate identification and diagnosis.
