Uganda is experiencing oxygen crisis in hospitals for treatment of COVID-19 patients especially those that are in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
The crisis has resulted into private hospitals charging exorbitant prices that are as high as Shs5 million per day for COVID-19 treatment.
This has caused a public uproar with many demanding government to immediately intervene and save the situation as more patients are bound to lose their lives as they cannot afford the inflated prices.
Diana Atwine, the Health Ministry Permanent Secretary has disclosed that the ministry can do less to regulate the high costs charged for Covid-19 treatment in private hospitals.
“We can negotiate with them, but we can’t dictate since they work independently and there’s no law in Uganda that regulates healthcare charges,” said Atwine while appearing on UBC.
Atwine said that as the ministry they are looking at increasing the number of cylinders available for treatment.
“We have a challenge of patients that are hoarding some cylinders that were taken for home based treatment. We are also expecting 3000 more cylinders into the country by August. However, their arrival into the country will depend on the supplier,” she said.
She told the public to stop complaining that gov’t has spent so much on the Covid-19 treatment as it’s actually an expensive disease that requires hospitals to be equipped with various items like; protective gear (PPE) and other hospital supplies in order to protect medics.