Hospitals in Uganda

Hospitals In Uganda

The largest state-owned hospital in Uganda is Mulago Hospital, built in Kampala 1962, with around 1,500 beds. Once it had an excellent medical school, with visitors from around the world to learn about tropical diseases. During the Amin administration, the hospital deteriorated along with the rest of the country's infrastructure. Now it still serves an important role but is very badly maintained.

There are many NGOs operating charitable hospitals now around the country, especially in rural areas, where the national health budget is rarely to be found.

Dr. Ian Clarke, a missionary from Northern Ireland, came in 1986 with his family, and built Kiwoko Hospital in Luweero, now a 200 bed charitable hospital. His book, The Man With the Key Has Gone, is an account of this time. He has become a resident of Uganda and is opening his own 200-bed private hospital, International Hospital Kampala, which is the first ISO-certified hospital in the country.

Health provision in Uganda is shared between government-funded facilities (typically large hospitals), private not-for-profit facilities which include church-supported hospitals, medium-sized clinics, private for-profit or commercial health units and self-employed physicians. The share is 30% government (Ministry of Health), 45% not-for-profit (NGOs) and 25% for-profit (private). The distribution of services tends to mean rural areas are underserved and lower-income households in urban areas are underserved as for-profit outlets and crowded government hospitals are concentrated in the towns. IHK has responded to this imbalance by encouraging companies in Kampala to sponsor a ward of beds to enable subsidised care of serious cases among lower-income households.

A separate, independent philanthropic not-for-profit NGO, Hope Clinic Lukuli, has been working for six years to minimise the financial barriers to health information and treatment among the Kampala population in Makindye Division. As a general practice facility it assists in maternal care, malaria management and childhood diseases as well as providing HIV counseling, testing, care and support services.