By Moses Radoli
Uganda men, women and children, both young and old daily troop to Kenya to seek medical services They cross the border on foot, motorbikes, bicycles, private cars and ambulances their destination – Kenyan hospitals. The most favoured are those in Busia County, both private and public and especially in Busia and Malaba towns on the Kenya – Uganda border.
The main reason is the towns’ proximity to the patients’ homes in various parts of Uganda, for those seeking treatment. The medical facilities in the neighbousing Bungoma County are also not spared since that town is only a few kilometres from the Kenya- Uganda border with a major highway running through it with connections to Uganda’s Tororo, Mbale, Soroti, Moroto, Kapchorwa areas among others.
Investigations by Health Business Magazine established that most of these patients troop into Kenya from not only Busia district of Uganda, but also Bugitri, Busoga, Majanji, Bugiri, Iganga, Palisa, Kumi, Kapchorwa, Mayunge, Kotido, Moroto districts among others. Many patients we talked to during the investigations confirmed that they had travelled as far as from these areas in Uganda to seek medical services from the Kenyan medical institutions because in Uganda they were scarce.
That this has been the practice for decades and there appears to be no end in sight in the immediate foreseeable future. That points to an ever increasing flow of those seeking medical attention in Kenya from Uganda as the populations continue increasing every expiring year. It is also true that apart from their numerousness, the medical institutions in Kenya are more advanced and equipped with medical supplies, technology, equipment, amenities, medical and personnel compared to the few available in our neighbouring country.
They also established that the most critical issue here is the fact that Kenya has more medical facilities both private and public hospitals compared to Uganda. Whereas in Kenya public health facilities can be found right from locational, divisional, district, county and former provincial levels, in Uganda the situation is not the same. At the same time comparatively, whereas in Kenya there are many private especially mission or church, group, organizations and individual owned hospitals, the reverse situation is prevailing in Uganda forcing many nationals of that country to seek medical attention in Kenya.
According to the Busia County government Cabinet Executive for Health Maurice Siminyu on a daily basis an average of about 100 Ugandans cross the border into Kenya to seek for medical services in Busia County alone adding that the County Government started documenting the patient’s flow from Uganda to have proper and accurate statistics.
Dr. Siminyu says “The numbers may go higher or lower depending on the disease incidence occurring in that country. If there is any major disease outbreak in Uganda our health facilities will definitely be under extreme pressure, because we play a big role in providing health services for our neighbours”.
He says in Busia County alone, the most targeted hospital is the County Level 4 Hospital that was formerly the Busia District Hospital serving the entire larger Busia district before it was fragmented that is now Busia County. The County Health Executive says that Ugandans are charged an average of at least 50 per cent above the charges levied Kenyans since they are not nationals and they are easily identified since they cannot produce Kenyan national identity cards.
“There are other sub-county hospitals which are also visited by Ugandans especially if they are suffering from common minor ailments like Kocholia Sub-County Hospital, Sio Port Sub-County Hospital, Alupe Sub- County Hospital, Nambale Sub-County Hospital, Khunyangu Sub-County Hospital, Bumala “B” Sub-County Hospital and Port Victoria Sub-County Hospital,” he said.
