The Uganda Medical Association (UMA) Ankole Branch has urged the government to address what it describes as systemic weaknesses in te country’s public healthcare system.
It argues that the challenges being experienced at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital (MRRH) are not unique to the facility but are being experienced across regional referral hospitals.
In a statement following an impromptu visit to Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital by Health Minister Dr. Chris Baryomunsi, the association called for urgent reforms, including lifting restrictions on recruitment, increasing funding for medicines and diagnostic services, expanding hospital infrastructure, improving staff welfare and strengthening healthcare services at lower-level facilities.
The recommendations follow public concern over overcrowded wards, patients sleeping on floors because of bed shortages, shortages of medicines and laboratory services, and patients being forced to seek treatment and diagnostic tests from private health facilities.
Dr. Elias Kiiza, Chairperson of the Uganda Medical Association Ankole Branch, said the concerns raised by patients are genuine but should be understood within the broader context of Uganda’s overstretched public health system.
He said the challenges extend beyond those visible to patients and include severe shortages of health workers, inadequate infrastructure, limited diagnostic capacity and chronic underfunding.
Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital, originally designed to accommodate about 250 beds, now admits more than 560 inpatients daily while attending to over 600 outpatients every day.
The hospital serves a catchment population of more than 3.5 million people across southwestern Uganda and also receives referrals from neighbouring regions and patients from Rwanda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
According to Dr. Kiiza, the hospital is operating with only about 26 per cent of its approved staffing establishment, forcing available health workers to work under enormous pressure.
To address these challenges, UMA recommended that the government lifts the recruitment restrictions in the health sector and recruit more healthcare workers.
It suggested the need to increase funding for medicines, laboratory reagents and diagnostic services, and expansion of infrastructure and bed capacity at regional referral hospitals.
UMA also urged the government to improve the welfare of health workers and strengthen specialised services at lower-level health facilities to reduce referrals and congestion at regional hospitals.
The association also defended the role of medical interns after reports suggested they were managing the hospital’s Emergency Department during the minister’s visit.
Dr. Kiiza described interns as an indispensable part of Uganda’s healthcare workforce, particularly in emergency medicine, surgery, maternity and critical care.
He warned that proposals to abolish internship allowances would worsen existing staff shortages and undermine patient care, urging government instead to strengthen internship and apprenticeship programmes.
The doctors argue that without increased investment in staffing, infrastructure and essential medical supplies, regional referral hospitals will continue to struggle to meet growing demand for specialised healthcare services-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
