Government sued over exorbitant Covid treatment cost

By Juliet Nalwooga

The Center for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD) a health rights promotion organization, has dragged the Attorney General, the Minister of Health and the Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners Council to court for alleged failure to fairly regulate the cost of Covid-19 treatment in the country.

This comes amid a public outcry over the prohibitive charges by private health facilities ranging from Shs500,000 to Shs3.5m per day.

It also comes as covid infections continue to surge, now standing at over 75,000 with over 700 deaths as of June 22.

Noor Nakibuka, the Director of Programmes at CEHURD says they have so far received complaints from several people who have been forced to fork out up to shs100 million for treatment in just a few days.

Yesterday, while meeting sector stakeholders, the head of State House Health Monitoring Unit Col Edith Nakalema also revealed that they had received nearly 500 complaints about the exorbitant cost of treating Covid patients.

Earlier, some of the private health care providers in Kampala defended the charges, attributing it to the high cost of hiring specialists, as well as procuring medicine and oxygen.

Written by Noelyn Nassuuna