Health Ministry struggling to acquire Digital X-Ray Machines to 51 big hospitals

By Ben Musanje

4^th March 2022

The Ministry of Health is expecting to acquire 50 digital X-Ray Machines through the Global Fund support to reach out to the lacking 48 General and 3 Regional referral hospitals in the country.

This has been disclosed by the Minister for Health Dr Jane Ruth Aceng while at the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Program headquarters at Wandegeya receiving equipments among others 50 motorcycles for the District Health Officers –DHOs, Two Tuberculosis Mobile Clinics and five digital X-Ray machines all worth over 4bnshs from the US government through the USAID Defeat TB Project.

Minister Aceng says that they have already developed a scale up plan for extending services aimed at deploying digital X-ray equipments in each of the district hospitals and the mobile clinic at each of the regional hospital to improve access to X-ray services.

She adds that the ministry collaborating with the Global Fund has considered the acquisition of these X-Ray machines in the next batch of the Global Fund support to Uganda.

Dr Stavia Turyahabwe, the Assistant Commissioner for the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Division in the Ministry of Health says that there is a burden of identifying about 16,000 people with TB that remain silent in the communities, but believing that with these new equipments, they will be able to reach out in the villages and put to care those found positive.

At least 90,000 cases of TB are recorded every year in Uganda with 84 percent of the patients enrolled to treatment according to the health ministry.