Minister Ayume Defends Shs 139 Billion French Loan for Mbarara Cancer Centre

State Minister for Primary Health Care, Charles Ayume, has strongly defended the government’s plan to secure a Shs 139 billion loan from the French government to build and equip the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) Mbarara Regional Oncology Centre.

Appearing before the parliamentary committee on health, Ayume explained that this Mbarara center is part of a larger strategy to establish four regional hubs. The primary goal is to alleviate congestion at the main UCI in Kampala and reduce the significant out-of-pocket expenses incurred by patients and their caretakers traveling long distances for treatment.

“The out-of-pocket expenditure of someone travelling from Kisoro or Kaabong district, who also has to come with a caretaker, is costly. That is why we are trying to decentralise these services,” Ayume stated.

The proposed center is expected to offer crucial services including cancer screening, chemotherapy, and surgery, thereby improving early detection and preventing avoidable deaths. The minister highlighted the critical need for such facilities, citing personal experience where individuals from his district return home in body bags due to a lack of timely screening and diagnosis.

While prioritizing Ugandan patients, the Mbarara center is also envisioned to boost medical tourism within the East African Community and beyond, leveraging the existing 20% foreign patient presence at the Kampala institute.

However, Dr. Jackson Orem, UCI’s executive director, clarified that the Mbarara facility will initially focus on basic services. More advanced treatments like radiotherapy will continue to be offered at the Kampala center due to funding constraints, with patients being referred as needed.

Mbarara University of Science and Technology has allocated land and is finalizing an agreement with UCI for the project, which will also support the university’s specialized medical training programs.

Questions were raised by MPs regarding the government’s Shs 16 billion counterpart funding and the need for a dedicated fund for expensive cancer medicines to improve affordability for ordinary Ugandans.