This archive report was first published on 12 October 2019.
Uganda's healthcare system has been marred by corruption and trickery, with doctors found to be extorting money from patients in exchange for fake medical services.
According to a recent exposé by the Democratic Governance Facility (DGF), supported by the Ugandan mainstream media, doctors have been using sophisticated cameras to conceal their tricks and make money from patients.
One such trick involves a hospital registrar telling mothers seeking birth notifications that there is no network available, only to reappear once the mothers grease his fingers with money.
Another trick involves doctors requiring patients to buy prescribed medicine from a specified pharmacy and bringing a receipt with the pharmacist's signature, only to accept the medicine and then discard it, replacing it with medicine from National Medical Stores.
Patients are then left to believe that the special medicine they brought from the specified pharmacy was ineffective, and the doctor charges them a token sum to treat them.
However, the real trick lies in the fact that the doctor is only interested in the money and not in providing actual medical care.
President Yoweri Museveni's recent directive to raise doctors' salaries aims to curb this corruption and trickery in the healthcare system.
With the Ugandan government receiving nearly $1 billion in aid from the United States government each year, and an additional $300 million from the Ugandan government's budget, it is clear that the resources are available to provide quality medical care to patients.
