Mp’s Petition Covid Treatment
A section of NRM Members of Parliament -MP’s are furious with t the way private facilities across the country are overcharging the public to treat covid 19.
The Mp’s protesting high fees for Covid treatment now want the government to cancel the licences of all private hospitals and clinics squeezing desperate Ugandans of the little they have left .
The National Resistance Movement-NRM Mp’s led by the Kazo Constituency MP Atwijukire Dan Kimosho have forwarded their petition to the office of the Prime Minister, Robinah Nabanjja.
Mp’s Petition Covid Treatment
The Legislators claim the over modulated prices are unacceptable and are demanding immediate intervention from the government.
“Government should immediately interrogate overcharging of Covid-19 patients and regulate these prices in the private sector and offer standard reference prices for the treatment of Covid-19 patients,” Atwijukire said
“The cost of treating a Covid-19 patient in ICU here is above Shs 4 million, but in Kenya the average cost for an ICU patient is Shs 1.7 million,” Sheema Municipality MP Dickson Kateshumbwa one of the petitioners said.
A survey done by the Daily Monitor shows that most public and private health facilities have made a breakdown of costs for different equipment that the admitted patients must shoulder on a daily basis.
For instance, equipment such as the oximeter, which reads the oxygen saturation levels along with the heart rate; gas cylinders, ICU beds, and ambulance services, are always billed individually.
For a patient admitted to the high dependence unit (HDU) at a private hospital in Kampala, they have to part with at least Shs2 million as cost for treatment every day.
For example, on a daily basis, a patient has to pay Shs300,000 for oxygen, Shs100,000 for a physician, Shs150,000 for a doctor and Shs200,000 as risk allowance for the two nurses assigned to him or her.
The patient also pays an additional Shs250,000 for the isolation room and an average of Shs400,000 for drugs administered to them every day.
Last week, the head of State House Anti-Corruption Unit, Col Edith Nakalema said that the government might be forced to intervene and stop private health facilities from charging Covid-19 patients exorbitantly.
