Govt suspends free meals in hospitals

Another caregiver at the hospital, Mr Samuel Kaguwa, says he spends about Shs8,000 on meals daily.

“We spend Shs8,000 on lunch and supper. I share the meal with the patient as a way of cutting costs,” Mr Kaguwa says.

Both Musimenta and Kaguwa share a common plight that mirrors what many other caregivers and patients at public hospitals go through.

A Monitor’s survey across the country reveals that some hospitals provide free meals to patients while others scrapped the programme citing budgetary constraints.

Dr Filbert Nyeko, the director of Kabale Regional Referral Hospital, says they do not prepare any meals for patients because “the government abolished it”.

“The government is not giving us any money for such activity,” Dr Nyeko says.

Kabale Regional Referral Hospital is situated in Kabale Town and it caters to patients referred from the lower health units in Kigezi Sub-region and from the neighbouring Rwanda and DR Congo.

At Masaka Regional Referral Hospital, the majority of patients have been going hungry since April 1 after management suspended free meals.

The facility has over the years been offering three meals to patients daily, with a daily menu being porridge mixed with milk for breakfast, and posho and beans for lunch and supper.

 On Wednesdays, the patients are treated to a special meal of pilao (meat and rice). But management says they can only provide meals for a few vulnerable patients, citing the rising food prices.

A kilogramme of maize flour in Masaka currently costs Shs3,200 up from Shs2,200, beans (Shs3,800 from Shs3,500) and rice (Shs6,000 from Shs4,000).

The few inpatients getting food include those in the psychiatric wards without caretakers and those brought by police.

Mr Charles Tumushime, the principal administrator for Masaka hospital, says they can only feed 20 percent of the 330 inpatients. On average, the hospital gets at least 1,800 outpatients and about 360 admissions daily, of which a minimum of 40 expectant mothers deliver every day.

Mr Tumushime says the facility needs about Shs250 million every financial year to sustain the feeding programme, but currently, they receive only Shs80 million.

“We advise our patients who are not considered for free food to find other means of survival,” he says.

Ugandans continue to endure a high cost of living even as inflation figures move from double to a single digit. Prices of essential commodities such as food (matooke, rice, beans, maize flour) and cooking oil have continued to rise, making life difficult for ordinary citizens.

Ms Meresi Musoki, a nutritionist at Kagando Hospital, says the facility has for years been catering for only malnourished people.

 However, she says, the high prices of food items have affected their performance. “We could conduct demonstrations, especially on cooking twice a week, but now we do it only once,” she says.

Ms Musoki says the price of a bunch of matooke has increased from Shs10,000 to Shs25,000, a kilogramme of rice is now at Shs 6,000, while sugar goes for Shs 6,000.

“This price fluctuation has affected our budgeting and we have now changed from giving four meals a day to three,” she says.

Ms Musoki adds that they asked for government support towards the nutrition programme, but they only received ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) .

“We are given five cartons of RUTF, which takes us two weeks, sometimes one week. Because it is not even enough, we now give the dosage according to the responsiveness of the patient or even discharge those we see are not responding to the treatment,” she says.

 Ms Sylvia Karungi, the secretary for health for Masindi District, explains that Masindi General Hospital used to provide food for the patients, but later, they stopped because of lack of funds.

Ms Karungi says the hospital provides food to patients only when there are available funds for food, but currently, the hospital does not have money.

“Sometimes, we provide porridge, but not on daily basis,” she says.

Ms Noreen Nabatooro, a patient at Masindi General Hospital, says there is a need for the government to provide a selection of nutritional meals.

“These days, we don’t get meals and we need them,” Ms Nabatooro says.

Mr Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, says the ministry lacks a policy on feeding in hospitals, but respective hospitals can make arrangements to feed patients.

“The National Health Policy doesn’t provide for that [feeding of patients] and it depends on the hospital administration. If they find that their resource envelope can enable them to provide free food, we cannot stop them, it is a good idea,” he says.

The director of Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital, Dr Alex Adaku, says the facility has continued to offer meals. He says they consider patients in the mental health and nutrition section,  patients abandoned by their attendants, and patients who are brought by police.

“We don’t feed all patients, but only a selection such as those in the mental health section,” he says.

At Tororo hospital, the hospital authorities say they have suspended providing free meals to the patients because the line ministry stopped it.

The hospital senior administrator, Mr Walter Uryekwun, says the hospital only gives food supplements to the nutrition unit hosting malnourished children.

He says the suspension of free meals came after development partners withdrew and started giving food to the patients of their preference; a case in point was The Aids Support Organisation.

Dr Richard Obeti, the Bunyangabu District Health Officer, says their facilities don’t offer meals to patients because they don’t have funds.

Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital spokesperson Kagure Halson says they offer free meals to patients only in the paediatric ward and those that do not have caretakers.

“At times, we get patients who have been neglected by their relatives so we feed them, but also we feed mostly children who are suffering from malnutrition keeping in mind that Ankole Sub-region is ranked high in the country on malnutrition,” he says.

Mr Halson adds that the hospital is supported by Global Collaborative Health and Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) to ensure the meals are readily available.

In the West Nile Sub-region, Dr Dominic Drametu, the Adjumani District health officer, says the feeding programme at the hospital was suspended in 2005 because “the system was abused”.

“When we had this programme, people from the town would come to eat under the guise of being caregivers. This made the budgets to shoot up until we discovered this anomaly and stopped it,’’ he says.

Currently, the funds for feeding are used to provide clean and safe water.

Mr Gai Deng, a refugee from Ayilo area, says the feeding programme would be a good idea for refugees, especially the minors who cannot afford food.

 In Jinja City, most public health facilities have maintained the feeding programme for patients despite the increasing prices of foodstuff, according to the Resident City Commissioner, Mr Darious Nandinda.

In Bugiri District, Mr David Lwanga, the chairperson of the health management committee of Bugiri General Hospital, says the feeding programme has existed at the facility for years.  “The committee budgeted for posho and beans for only in-patients, this is something we promise to keep doing,” he says.

 Ms Agnes Kagoya, a patient in the female ward, commends the management for providing free meals, but called for improvement because some patients do not eat posho, yet that is what is served with beans on a daily basis.

Mr Robert Mutumba Musenze, the assistant health officer for Bugiri Hospital, says: “The hospital has a 180-bed capacity. However, sometimes the number exceeds; so, because of the small budget, we only provide food to those who are financially incapacitated.”

 Mr Haruna Wamala, the senior hospital administrator for Kawolo Hospital in Buikwe District, says free food has always been given to patients, but due to financial problems, they are currently providing only porridge every morning.

At Lira Regional Referral Hospital, more than 400 inpatients are getting one meal a day courtesy of Guru Nanak Oil Millers.

Dr Singh Surjit, the managing director, says they started the feeding programme in 2018 as part of their company’s corporate social responsibility.

Compiled by Al-Mahdi Ssenkabirwa, Robert Muhereza, Moureen Biira, Alex Ashaba, Ismail Bategeka, Marko Taibot, Philip Wafula, Denis Edema,Antonio Kalyango, Asuman Musobya, Tausi Nakato, Abubaker Kirunda Robert Muhereza, Emmanuel Arineitwe, Patrick Ebong, and Joseph Omollo.