MPs want gov't to meet medical bills of Covid-19 patients in ICUs

The parliamentary task force on the national Covid-19 response want government to earmark some resources to clear medical bills for Covid-19 patients in ICU's as it's becoming expensive to their families meet the bills.

The MPs said with the current crisis, public hospitals have limited capacity to take on all patients that require ICU services compelling the affected persons to rush to the private hospitals which are expensive.

Appearing before the parliamentary Covid-19 task force, the minister of Health Dr. Ruth Aceng disclosed that both public or private hospitals require an average of Shs 3 million to sustain a patient in the ICU unit a day.

But when the officials from the ministry of Finance appeared before the same committee led by ministers Matia Kasaija and Henry Musasizi, the legislators suggested that there is need to for government to earmark some resources to meet medical bills for Covid-19 patients that have been referred to ICUs of various hospitals.

Some MPs claimed that a number of patients in ICUs have lost properties after mortgaging them to the money lenders in pursuit of the resources to pay the medical bills.

MPs also opposed the proposal by Ministry of Health to use a third-party to enable the country access the Covid-19 vaccine saying the country may end up getting poor quality vaccines at a high cost.