Under normal circumstances, medical services from public hospitals should either be free or at a lower cost compared to private-owned medical centres.
In Uganda, it is almost impossible to differentiate between a public hospital and a private-owned hospital because getting a service in the former, you may sometimes pay as if you are in the latter.
This is wrong and it amounts to corruption if such payment is not accompanied with a receipt. It is this kind of corruption that State Minister for General Duties in the Ministry of Health Robinah Nabbanja wants to stop, and she believes the installation of CCTV cameras at Kawempe Referral Hospital would do the magic.
Nabbanja revealed this proposal as she was speaking to medical workers at Kawempe National Referral Hospital. where he made an impromptu visit to check on their operations.
“What I have seen here is that there has been extortion of money from patients before giving them medical attention. We are going to install cameras at this hospital. I am going to talk to the President to use some money from the COVID-19 fund to install cameras here,” Nabanja said.
Kawempe Hospital is one of the referral hospitals that were constructed under the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) project of one referral hospital per division in Kampala.