Patients to save Shs130m on local kidney transplant

Kampala. The government has spent Shs18.3 billion in the last five years to treat its officials abroad but this will soon come to an end after it tightened its noose on referrals.
About 248 government workers with heart, neurology, urology, orthopaedic, cancer, ophthalmology, chest, oral health ear, nose and throat and other ailments were referred abroad between 2013/2014 to 2017/2018 financial years costing government $4.9m (Shs18.3b).

But Dr Diana Atwiine, Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Health, yesterday said government is building local capacity to handle complicated diseases to save people from seeking treatment abroad.
All kidney cases starting January will be handled at Mulago after government installed the state-of-the-art equipment.
Dr Atwiine said on average, a patient with a kidney problem will spend $5,000 (Shs18.5m) compared to $40,000 (Shs148m) they were spending in India.

Equipment
She said all regional hospitals will have CT scans, X-Rays and MRIs which many patients would travel to Kampala to get.
The Director General Health Services, Dr Henry Mwebesa, said 30 per cent of the referral cases they were getting were related to neurology (spine, brain and nerves) while the kidney accounts for 20 per cent of the referral cases.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Dr Jackson Amone, Ministry of Health Commissioner, Clinical Services, said only patients with referral notes from a lower system will be attended to at a higher level to avoid delays.

“Do not go to a doctor with the intention of going outside. Go with the intention of being treated. Referrals are not done individually and no patient interfaces with the medical board. It is the doctor who appears and has to answer the question to the satisfaction of the board. You don’t just send patients for tour,” Dr Amone said.
Dr Mwebesa said they are building a national ambulance system that will be controlled from a particular centre so that they monitor their movements.

Referral plan

Special cases. Dr Henry Mwebesa said they have proposed that Naguru Hospital handles emergencies and trauma, Kiruddu handles surgical, stomach and diarrhoea cases, cancer patients will go to Cancer Institute, all hospitals will handle dental cases while Old Mulago will deal with eyes and surgical cases. The other complicated cases will go to Mulago and referrals from Kawempe that will specialise in gynaecology. A referral process needs a referral form, referral register, referral form for managing patients abroad and a consultation request form.

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