Are you one of those who have been eager to know how much Uganda spends on treating a COVID-19 Patient? Dr Ekwaro Obuku, the former Uganda Medical Association President has given us an estimate.
Speaking during an interview this morning on NBS TV, Obuku said government urgently needs to develop a sustainable financing arrangement for COVID-19 as it spends a lot of money treating one case.
“To detect and treat one case, we are spending Shs28 million. This is very costly,” Obuku said. This caters for testing kits, Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs), accommodation costs, welfare costs and staff costs.
To cut down the cost, Obuku said government should think of getting cheaper tests which are accurate. He also said asymptomatic patients (those that produce no signs) should receive home-based care treatment.
For counterparts in Kenya, their government spends KES 21,359 (about Shs724000) per day for asymptomatic patients, KES 21,361(about Shs724000) per day for patients with mild symptoms and KES 51,684 (about Shs1752000) for critical COVID-19 patients in ICU’s.
On average, a COVID-19 patient spends 21 days to recover from the deadly Coronavirus.
Back to Dr. Obuku, he said the rampant corruption by government officials has put to waste all energies of the health workers.
“Health financing is a problem in Uganda because of the funding gap. The bulk of the funding comes from individuals,” Obuku said before warning intern doctors not to go on working on patients without a mask.
“Don’t die heroes when you are below 26, yet the government doesn’t want to invest in you,” he said.