Uganda Cancer Institute rejects appeals to stop charging patients at private wing

Dr. Jackson Orem, the Executive Director Uganda Cancer Institute, has rejected appeals by MPs to stop charging patients seeking services at the private wing.

According to Orem, the revenue collected from these patients is used for maintenance of equipment since the money provided by government for this activity is insufficient.

He made the remarks while meetings with MPs on Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee to scrutinize the December 2023 Auditor General’s report, where auditors had queried the low revenue collections in 2022/23, with the Institute having projected to collect Shs4.5Bn, but only collected Shs3.37Bn.

“Even if the Government gives us that Shs4.5Bn, there is still going to be a need because cancer treatment is uniform internationally so that means, even if you are a rich or poor person, the standard of treatment that you are getting is the same. So even if you gave us that Shs4.5Bn, it is still not going to make a very big difference,” said Dr. Orem.

He added, “Cancer is a very impoverishing condition, the majority of the people who come to the institute actually, they come when they don’t have money. Even the rich and people of middle class, initially when they come, they want to be in the private services, but they can’t even last three months in the private services. They revert to the general wing.”

Dr. Orem’s remarks were in response to a question raised by Muwanga Kivumbi (Butambala County) who questioned why Uganda Cancer Institute continues to operate a private wing, yet only Shs4.5Bn is collected in revenue, wondering if the Institute would be comfortable at having these funds incorporated within the Institute’s budget by Government, to enable the facility offer free services to all Ugandans.

“All cancer patients are equal and despite the fact that we have a few people who want exclusive services, even those we subsidize them, the only thing they are getting in the private wing apart from a few investigations, is the space that has ambiance,” explained Dr. Orem.

Muwanga remarked, “You generate Shs4.5Bn and your budget is Shs48Bn and the services offered are a public good because my understanding is that the poor are subsidizing for the rich who go in the private wing because for the Shs48Bn, it is collected from all of us. So, my small money goes to finance the rich man and I can’t access the private wing, so, is it comfortable for you if we added the Shs4.5Bn on your budget and you say, we no longer charge anything?”

Dr. Nixon Niyonzima, Head of Research and Training at the Uganda Cancer Institute said that private wing services include; Admission fees- Shs100,000 charged per night, consultation fees-Shs50,000 per visit, laboratory blood tests-Shs10,000, ultrasound-Shs 10,000, X-ray-Shs30,000, CTScan-Shs 200,000 to Shs300,000 and this is charged depending on the organ the patient wants, but patients in both general and private wing receive free drugs.

He also said the Institute charges for Radiotherapy services and in case a patient is doing one for the advanced techniques, the charge is Shs1.4M for entire radiotherapy period that lasts six weeks, and defended the need to charge patients saying, “Part of the reason we collect NTR is to ensure that our equipment is maintained, we have a very small budget for maintenance of equipment and most of the money we get from NTR is for maintenance of equipment. We actually need more support from the Government, we still have many gaps that are unfunded.”