Mulago Hospital authorities have decried significant challenges due to a shortfall in funding with mounting pressure to meet operational expenses and patient needs.
Rosemary Byanyima, Acting Executive Director of Mulago Hospital, lamented to the health committee of Parliament the government’s inability to secure an additional Shs200.272 billion to support hospital operations in the upcoming fiscal year.
She said despite the hospital submitting a budget of Shs289.82 billion, only Shs87.038 billion was approved, exacerbating financial strain.
Administrators at Mulago Hospital revealed that they requested Shs94.735 billion to cover wages and recruit new staff. However, only Shs50.138 billion has been made available, leaving a substantial funding gap of Shs43.597 billion.
The hospital’s staff structure, as of January 31, 2024, outlines 2056 positions, but only 1372 are currently filled, highlighting a significant staffing deficit of 684 positions. She said the hospital needs Shs28billion to fill all vacant positions and appealed for Shs15 billion for the completion of construction works at the lower Mulago.
Byanyima also mentioned inadequate funding for ICU consumables as one of the reasons the units do not operate at full capacity.
“There are staffing gaps especially the nursing staff. We admit patients to ICU which is well equipped but there are no consumables; medicines will run out because of the shortages in the budgets,” said Byanyima.
Provision of extra Shs10.8 billion, Byanyima said will cater for the required consumables and maintenance of ICU equipment to increase the functionality.
She further stated that the money is also required to fully operationalize the Intensive Care Units(ICU).
“In the pediatric ICU, we have 15 beds but we are only operationalizing five, in the adult ICU there are 27 beds but 14 are functional because that is what we can afford,” said Byanyima.
Byanyima shared positive news regarding the first kidney transplant recipient, who is reportedly recovering well alongside the donor.
However, she expressed concern over the rising demand for dialysis treatment, stating, “We had projected and budgeted for 5000 dialysis sessions, and we did 5760. The cases are on the increase, and as we talk, we have already exhausted the budget for the financial year.”