Walking through the corridors of Mulago national regional referral hospital your eyes land on patients, causalities and expecting mothers in deep pain hoping for help but in scattered assurance on what they have seen, heard and actually worries of the realities on what they see

This situation is not only at Mulago but almost in all government regional referral hospitals where patients only go to these government facilities many just to try their luck

The vice becomes even more terrifying when treatment and service that is meant to be for free gets a price tag with a price based on the moods of the doctor and the class of the patient

The habit of extortion from patients has become a song by policy makers that even government hospital directors accept while the locals match this to a mushroom of pharmacies and clinics that surround these hospitals with allegations that almost 80% of these are owned by doctors who work in these hospitals

But all that said and done, the ministry of health budget has been growing for each financial year for example in 2020/2021 the allocation was 2.8 trillion, 2021/2022 went up to 3.33 trillion 2022/2023 reaching to 3.67 trillion which paved to a 4.05trillion the next financial year and the proposed allocation the coming financial year will shoot to 4.48trillion

This however on ground leaves the state the same as yesterday with government hospitals lucking enough facilities to give expected services to the tax payer

According to the auditor general report of 2024/2025 specifically on the health status outlines that, the government has invested a lot in construction of health centers but these are just facilities with no required equipment sighting for example 150 billion to purchase ICU but most are none operational due to luck of maintenance, no specialists to operate them, luck of electricity turning ICU rooms into just stores

“We went to mubende, for portal, kabaale and in all these government hospitals we found none functional medical equipment, under stuffing none operational oxygen gas which we advise the government to look into “Auditor General

Further more according to the report Uganda needs over 1440 anathesists but only 46 are available, on the 114 psychiatrist that are needed only 30 available yet the demand is very high making it expensive to offer service

When you go to Mukono regional referral hospital there is a tent located in the maternity wing and this is where mothers are sent immediately after delivering and the condition of this tent is very worrying, when it rains all the dirty water floods this end, beds are on the ground and no nurse attends to any of these mothers with all the congestion that is always here

“Because we don’t have any option available, we are sent to this tent and we get a lot of infections because the tent is always dirty, no one cares, the medication or treatment after delivery is privately purchased and sometimes this is when babies are switched because sometimes, we are forced to leave our babies with doctors “– Patient 1

Another patient says that until you pay some money to a nurse that when you are given good care and deserved attention Efforts to speak to the administration of this hospital failed but the situation is even worse in Lira

Speaking to DR Adrew Odur the Hospital Director of Lira regional Referral hospital says patients walk from long distance and its disappointing when they reach the hospital which looks like there last hope and they find not enough medicine or even specialists that can attend to them “ Lira regional referral hospital serves around 2.6 million people and the truth is we don’t have all that it takes to give care to these patients , our medicine’s budget is very inadequate and we need it to be increased to knock out these challenges to avoid losing lives that can be saved”

This has no difference with what is happening in Hoima, appearing before a parliamentary committee on health, the Director Hoima regional referral hospital DR Ibrahim Bwaga told members of parliament that among the challenges that they face is power blackouts which happens every day at night and this has caused a lot of deaths and putting at risk patients

DR Bagawa echoed that since 2023 letters have been written to address this but up to date Hoima doesn’t have its transformer not even a power line, furthermore he added that the Hoima city doesn’t have a healthy center and in the whole district they only have one health center which brings on the numbers to be overwhelming

This Budden then has shifted to policy makers for example HON. OPIO SAMUEL ACUTI the member of parliament for Kole North County says because politicians have promised these voters who are also patients a lot now we end up receiving calls for assistance “ yes we promise them that when they vote us we shall bring change and because we sometimes fail to meat deadlines we end up receiving calls demanding money for drugs , money for Xray’s ,money for al ultra sound yet all these are in public hospitals “

He however attaches this to corruption that is in public hospitals and says there is a lot of extortion going on in the hospitals and this is done by many people including hospital stuff

Extortion has always happened in three levels there cases where there patient attendants that extort money from patients , there is also masquerader related extortion and these are people that lie patients that they can give them access to meet the doctor on a private arrangement and these are people that are always with in the premises of the hospitals and there is also the stuffs of the hospitals who demand money from patients before they give them services However, hon Namugga Gorreth who also serves as the deputy chairperson of the committee on public accounts affairs urged members of parliament to increase the budget of the ministry of health to give public hospitals muscles to save all lives because all lives matter

She also asked for a lot of awareness to the public to actually understand that these services are meant o be free and report on sport whoever asks them for money because even when arrests have been done but the vice is growing every day

Efforts to secure comment from the Ministry of Health’s communications officer were unsuccessful. However, the National Drug Authority acknowledged persistent supply challenges, attributing them partly to limited government resources and encouraging Ugandans to explore pre-paid health insurance options.

The government insists reforms are underway. A UGX 132 billion plan to recruit 17,000 health workers was announced in March 2026, but analysts argue that staffing alone cannot solve the crisis without adequate drug supplies, equipment functionality, and accountability mechanisms.

The story of Uganda’s hospitals is ultimately one of broken promises. Billions are pledged, but patients still die from treatable conditions. Equipment gathers dust, medicines disappear, and accountability remains elusive. Until stronger oversight is enforced, medical supply chains are secured, and human resource gaps are addressed, Uganda’s public hospitals risk remaining not centers of healing but monuments to systemic failure.