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Mulago Hospital seeks more money for organ transplants
Mulago National Referral Hospital is seeking Shs8.598 billion in additional funding for Financial Year 2025/2026, to support organ transplant services.
The hospital’s Executive Director, Dr Rosemary Byanyima, brought the appeal before the Committee on Health, on Wednesday, 15 January 2025.
According to Dr Byanyima, the hospital has conducted five successful kidney transplants, with four more patients scheduled for the operation between April and May 2025.
“All the donors have fully recovered and resumed their work, and the recipients have recovered from surgery, with one of them resuming work. Skills have also been transferred from the Yashoda team to our surgeons, nurses and anesthesiologist, among other specialists,” she noted.
She said the hospital has found difficulty with securing medicines and screening equipment for the transplant operations which requires Shs3.623 billion, as well as Shs2.782 billion for staffing and Shs2.193 billion for capacity building.
“In the next financial year, we plan to conduct 12 kidney transplants, five liver transplants and 10 corneal operations which require adequate funding. We also need to acquire more equipment and supplies which will reduce the cost of tests and turnaround time,” Dr Byanyima added.
Hon. Benard Sekyanzi (NRM, Budyebo County) urged the committee to support Mulago Hospital’s request, particularly in skilling to improve the capacity of hospital staff to carry out the transplant services.
“The need for liver and corneal transplants is very high and that is why we need many specialists available to perform these operations,” said Sekyanzi.
Hon. George Bhoka (NRM, Obongi County) raised the need for the operationalisation of the Organ Donation and Transplant Council, and regulations to regulate the medical practice.
The operations carried out by Mulago Hospital are premised on the Uganda Human Organ Donation and Transplant Act, 2023 that was passed by Parliament in November 2022 and assented to by the President in March 2023.
Mulago National Referral Hospital requires a total of Shs189.3 billion in additional funding for Financial Year 2025/2026, to among other things, complete renovation works at Lower Mulago (Shs15.5 billion), complete the construction of 150 housing units for emergency staff (Shs14.041 billion), and procure supplies for critical care, dialysis and neurosurgery (Shs82.7 billion).
Dr Byanyima noted that additional funding recommended by the committee in Financial Year 2024/2025 for critical items like staffing, specialised medicines, and maintenance of state of the art equipment was not provided by the finance ministry.
“The hospital continues to grapple with under utilisation of the ICU beds due to understaffing, and is running with inadequate supplies for critical care, theatre and dialysis, among others,” she noted.
Source:Parliament of Uganda